Who is Andy Burnham? The ex-Manchester mayor set to be the next PM

Here is the latest breaking news from around the world: He's the first Andy in No 10 - but his rise to power has been decades in the makingImage source, ReutersByBecky Morton, Political reporter and Brian Wheeler, Political reporterPublished14 May 2026Updated 10 July 2026Andy Burnham now looks set to be the 59th prime minister of the UK after Labour MPs backed him to take over as their party leader. He will not be the first Andrew to occupy Number 10 - Andrew Bonar Law got there first in 1922. But he will be the first Andy.

His political brand is all about being matey and approachable, and the "vote Andy" slogan has brought him a lot of success at the ballot box over the years. He will also be the first self-proclaimed Northerner to be prime minister since Harold Wilson in the 1960s and 70s. PMs since then may have had northern English roots, but none have made it a core part of their appeal in the way that Burnham has.

The Details

He even has the nickname King of North, earned after he made a defiant, open-air speech in 2020 telling the government Greater Manchester would not accept any more Covid restrictions. But the 56-year-old began his long political career as the archetypal Westminster insider - and although he has only been an MP for less than a month this time, his rise to power has been decades in the making. He first stood to be Labour leader in 2010 and then again in 2015, when he came a distant second to Jeremy Corbyn.

He might have gone down as a footnote in political history if he had not taken the gamble, in 2017, to seek election as the first mayor of the Greater Manchester region. Regional mayors were an untested concept at the time but Burnham made the role his own - and used it to build a powerful platform, untainted by the London-centric Westminster politics he professes to despise. Figure caption, Watch: Who is Andy Burnham?..

in 90 secondsEarly life: Everton fan and indie music loverBorn in Liverpool in 1970, Burnham grew up in Culcheth, a quiet commuter belt village in Cheshire, near Warrington. His father, a BT engineer, and his mother, a GP receptionist, were both staunch Labour supporters and he developed an early interest in politics. Burnham has described how he was inspired to join the Labour Party at the age of 14, after being moved by the TV drama, Boys from the Blackstuff, about life on the dole in Liverpool.

What Experts Say

A lifelong Everton fan, his friends remember Burnham as a competitive, sports-mad child, who was a fast bowler for Lancashire schoolboys cricket team. At school, the local Roman Catholic comprehensive, his English teacher recalls how he stood to be a Labour candidate in mock elections - and won by a landslide. Burnham and his two brothers were the first in their family to go to university, with Andy studying English at Cambridge.

In his book, Head North, Burnham wrote that he "struggled to feel part of things" at university and felt like an "imposter".

The story has become one of the most prominent items on the global agenda.