Andy Burnham

Andrew Murray Burnham (born 7 January 1970) is a British politician who has served as Mayor of Greater Manchester since 2017.

Andrew Murray Burnham was born on 7 January 1970 in Aintree, Lancashire (now part of Liverpool City Region, Merseyside).

His father, Kenneth Roy Burnham, was a telephone engineer and his mother, Eileen Mary Burnham, was a receptionist.

He was brought up in Culcheth and educated at St Lewis Catholic Primary School and St Aelred's Roman Catholic High School, in Newton le Willows, St Helens.

He studied English at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.

Burnham joined the Labour Party when he was 15.

He worked as a researcher for Tessa Jowell from 1994 to 1997, then worked for the NHS Confederation in 1997 and as an administrator for the Football Task Force in 1998.

From 1994 until the 1997 general election he was a researcher for Tessa Jowell.

He joined the Transport and General Workers' Union in 1995.

Following the 1997 election, he was a parliamentary officer for the NHS Confederation from August to December 1997, before taking up the post as an administrator with the Football Task Force for a year.

He was a special adviser to Culture Secretary Chris Smith from 1998 to 2001.

In 1998, he became a special adviser to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Chris Smith, a position he remained in until he was elected to the House of Commons in 2001.

Following the retirement of Lawrence Cunliffe, Burnham successfully applied to be the parliamentary candidate for Leigh in Greater Manchester, then a safe Labour seat.

Following the retirement of Lawrence Cunliffe, the Labour MP for Leigh, Burnham was elected to succeed him in 2001.

At the 2001 election he was elected with a majority of 16,362, and gave his maiden speech in the House of Commons on 4 July 2001.

Following his election to Parliament, Burnham was a member of the Health Select Committee from 2001 until 2003, when he was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Home Secretary David Blunkett.

He served as a Parliamentary Private Secretary from 2003 to 2005.

Following Blunkett's first resignation in 2004, he became PPS to the education secretary Ruth Kelly.

Burnham voted for the Iraq War, and consistently voted against holding an inquiry into the war.

He was promoted by Prime Minister Tony Blair to serve in his Government after the 2005 election as Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department.

Burnham was promoted to serve in the Government following the 2005 election as a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, with responsibility for implementing the Identity Cards Act 2006.

In 2006, Burnham was reshuffled to become Minister of State for Health.

In the government reshuffle of 5 May 2006, he was moved from the Home Office and promoted to Minister of State for Delivery and Reform at the Department of Health.

He served in Gordon Brown's Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2007 to 2008, Culture Secretary from 2008 to 2009 and Health Secretary from 2009 to 2010.

A member of the Labour Party, Burnham identifies as a socialist and as belonging to the party's soft left.

When Gordon Brown became Prime Minister in 2007, Burnham was promoted to the Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, a position he held until 2008, when he became Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.

In Gordon Brown's first cabinet, announced on 28 June 2007, Burnham was appointed Chief Secretary to the Treasury, a position he held until 2008.

In 2009, he was promoted again to become Secretary of State for Health.

In that role, he opposed further privatisation of National Health Service services and launched an independent inquiry into the Stafford Hospital scandal.

Following the Labour Party's defeat in the 2010 general election, Burnham was a candidate in the 2010 Labour leadership election, coming fourth out of five candidates.

The contest was won by Ed Miliband.

Burnham served as Shadow Secretary of State for Health until late 2010, when he was moved by Miliband to become Shadow Secretary of State for Education.

He held that role for a year, then returning to the role of Shadow Health Secretary.

He served as Shadow Home Secretary from 2015 to 2016 and was Member of Parliament (MP) for Leigh from 2001 to 2017.

Born in the Old Roan area of Aintree, Burnham was educated at St Aelred's Catholic High School in Newton-le-Willows and graduated with a degree in English from Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.

Following Miliband's resignation as Labour leader due to the 2015 general election defeat, Burnham launched his campaign to succeed Miliband in the resulting September 2015 leadership election.

He finished a distant second behind Jeremy Corbyn, after which he accepted a role in Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Home Secretary.

After being selected as Labour's candidate for the new Greater Manchester Mayoralty, Burnham stood down as Shadow Home Secretary in 2016 and an MP at the 2017 general election.

Burnham won the 2017 mayoral election, and was re-elected in the delayed election held in May 2021.

For his role of securing more money for local Northern communities during the COVID-19 pandemic, he was dubbed the "King of the North" by the media.