Andy Burnham: 'King of the North' with eyes on the top job

Andy Burnham is no stranger to Labour leadership contests.

More than 10 years ago he ran twice, unsuccessfully, for the top job.

Now he's backed by many Labour MPs as the party's best chance of recovery, after months of languishing in the polls and a devastating set of election results.

The only problem? He's not an MP - a requirement to stand as Labour leader.

In January, he was knocked back by Labour's ruling national executive committee (NEC) when he sought to stand in a by-election.

But he has now managed to find a Labour MP willing to stand down to give him a chance to get back to Westminster to challenge Sir Keir Starmer.

It is not a done deal. Sir Keir has said he will not seek to block Burnham from standing in Josh Simons' Makerfield constituency.

But he will still need to be selected as a candidate by the local party and then win a by-election in a seat where Reform UK came second by 5,399 votes at the 2024 general election and swept the board at last week's local elections.

In a statement, Burnham said: "I truly do not take a single vote for granted and will work hard to regain the trust of people in the Makerfield constituency, many of whom have long supported our party but lost faith in recent times.

"We will change Labour for the better and make it a party you can believe in again."

He also made it clear that, if he is selected, he will run on his record as mayor of Greater Manchester, where he has been elected three times with successive landslides, vowing to "make politics work properly for people" across the UK.

Born 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 BBC TV drama, Boys from the Blackstuff, about life on the dole in Liverpool.

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".

However, the music-lover - who is a fan of northern indie bands like The Smiths and The Stone Roses - said his "growing in interest in Manchester music gave me and identity and an advantage".

After graduating, he started out in journalism, working for trade magazines including Tank World and Passenger World Management.

In his early 20s, he got his first break in politics, working as a researcher for the late Tessa Jowell, then MP for Dulwich and West Norwood, who would go on to be a minister under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

Despite his later contempt for Westminster politics, Burnham rose quickly through the ranks, becoming a special adviser to Culture Secretary Chris Smith before being elected as the MP for his hometown of Leigh, in Greater Manchester, in 2001.

He first served as a junior minister under Blair, but joined the cabinet as chief secretary to the Treasury, and later culture secretary and health secretary, under Brown.

It was as secretary of state for culture, media and sport that Burnham was heckled at a memorial service marking the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster.

Ninety-seven Liverpool fans were killed in the stadium crush of 1989.

The heckling spurred Burnham on to raise the issue in cabinet, contributing to the launch of a second inquiry into the disaster.

In 2010, after Brown resigned following Labour's general election defeat, Burnham ran to become the party's leader.

He came fourth out of the five contenders, losing to Ed Miliband, but spent the next five years building up his appeal with the party's grassroots.

In 2015 he tried again, beaten this time by Jeremy Corbyn.

Despite this, Burnham was the only leadership candidate to serve in Corbyn's shadow cabinet, as shadow home secretary.

He was not one of those who resigned in protest at Corbyn's leadership in 2016.

Instead he stood down in 2017 to run to be the first mayor of Greater Manchester.

Burnham won the contest with more than 60% of the vote and was re-elected by an even bigger margin in 2021.

As mayor, he has drawn praise for his transformation of the region's transport system.

Under his leadership, Greater Manchester was the first area outside London to bring bus services back under public control, while integrating them with other modes of transport under the branding of the "Bee Network".

Other bold pledges included ending rough sleeping in the region by 2020 - although the target was missed.

His profile rose further during the Covid pandemic, when he accused the Conservative government of treating the north of England with "contempt" over regional lockdown restrictions.

The stand-off helped earn him the nickname "King of the North".

By the autumn party conference season of 2025, Burnham was openly on manoeuvres for the top job, as he refused to rule out a leadership bid.

His interventions appeared to backfire, after he provoked a backlash by suggesting the government was "in hock" to the bond markets - a reference to the government's self-imposed rules limiting spending and borrowing.

In January a potential opportunity for a return to Westminster arose when Greater Manchester MP Andrew Gwynne announced he was standing down, triggering a by-election in his Gorton and Denton constituency.

However, Burnham was blocked from standing by Labour's ruling body, with the approval of the prime minister.

Despite the setback he still has a number of powerful allies in Parliament, including Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy and former minister Louise Haigh.

But with Reform UK riding high in the polls and the party seeing success in Burnham's backyard in May's council elections, a by-election victory would not be a given.

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