Andy Burnham is returning to Westminster.
The Greater Manchester mayor stormed to victory in the Makerfield by-election on Thursday night, winning 55% of the vote and comfortably seeing off Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain parties.
His return to parliament means he is now free to launch a challenge to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and he has previously signalled that he would join any leadership contest.
In his victory speech, Burnham warned his Labour Party that it had one “final chance to change,” and many Labour MPs see him as the party’s best opportunity to do so.
Here’s a closer look at the new Makerfield MP.
Early life and career
Burnham was born on Merseyside in the northwest of England and was raised in the village of Culcheth in Cheshire.
He has said he was first inspired to enter politics after watching “Boys From The Blackstuff,” an acclaimed 1982 TV show about five unemployed men in Liverpool navigating Margaret Thatcher’s Britain.
“I remember watching every episode with my parents,” Burnham told GQ magazine in 2019. “That was when I knew that I had to do something”.
The lifelong Everton football fan would go on to study English at the University of Cambridge before starting out in journalism, working for trade publications such as Container Management, Passenger Rail Management and Tank World.
Burnham made the switch to politics in his early 20s, taking a job as a researcher for the late Tessa Jowell, a former MP for Dulwich.
By 2001, he had been elected as an MP himself for the Greater Manchester constituency of Leigh, a seat he held until 2017. In that time, he served in a number of senior ministerial positions, including as secretary of state for health and chief secretary to the Treasury.
Burnham, who shares three children with his Dutch wife, Marie-France van Heelthen, then took over as the mayor of Greater Manchester, overseeing huge development of the area. The city of Manchester in particular has become one of the UK’s trendiest spots, with palpable growth evidenced through rapidly appearing skyscrapers and a well-documented “buzz” around the streets.
He remained in that role right up until Thursday’s vote, and he said it was with “some sadness” that his election would bring an end to his “wonderful nine years” in office.
“This city region has given so much to me, and it is a wrench to leave the job that I love,” he said.
Critics
Burnham’s critics argue that he is a classic Westminster insider attempting to present himself as an outsider and that he is liable to change his tune depending on what he thinks will suit him – with some pointing to his recent comments on Brexit.
The Brexit debate has reignited in recent months as Labour figures jostle for position ahead of a potential leadership showdown, and Burnham’s previous call for the UK to rejoin the bloc came under the spotlight in the by-election campaign.
Addressing the issue, Burnham said that while he still believed Brexit had been costly to the UK, he did not think it was the right time to reopen the debate.
“My view is that Brexit has been damaging,” he said in May. “But I also believe the last thing we should do right now is rerun those arguments”.
Instead, Burnham has pledged to back British businesses and industries and put an end to trickle-down economics, also telling supporters on Friday that he would be a “member of parliament for everybody, however they voted”.
“We have an opportunity to turn the tide,” he said. “To make the country feel like it’s working again. To make people see that politics can make a positive difference. To make people feel hope again”.
Starmer and Restore Britain leader Lowe have both congratulated Burnham on his win, with the PM saying, “voters chose Labour’s campaign of hope and optimism over division and hate”.
“Andy Burnham won an overwhelming victory,” Lowe added. “It is only fair to recognise that and congratulate him and his team. An impressive campaign, particularly their effort on the ground yesterday in Makerfield which was vast. Fair enough”.
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