Andy Burnham: Britain's likely next prime minister

In 2024, the UK's Labour Party won a landslide victory — its first in 14 years — under Keir Starmer. But just two years later, Starmer found himself under such intense pressure that on Monday he announced his resignation. Outside his official residence at 10 Downing Street, he said a successor would be chosen by the end of Parliament's summer recess in September.

The man widely expected to be that successor is Andy Burnham. Last week, the popular Manchester mayor won the by-election in the constituency of Makerfield by a wide margin, securing a seat in Parliament. Holding a parliamentary seat is a prerequisite for becoming prime minister.

A long political career

"Everyone can feel the country isn't where it should be," the 56-year-old Burnham said after his Makerfield election victory, in remarks that already sounded distinctly prime ministerial. "From here on I will give everything I have got to make it so. To ensure the name Makerfield is forever synonymous with bringing about the change this country needs, bringing back something we've lost — hope — hope for the future."

Burnham is seen as a leading figure on Labour's moderate-left wing and has decades of experience in both national and regional politics. He first entered Parliament in 2001. Under Prime Minister Tony Blair, he served as a junior minister at the Home Office before Blair's successor, Gordon Brown, appointed him to roles at the Finance Ministry, the Department for Culture, and later as health secretary. Burnham even ran for the Labour leadership twice, in 2010 and 2015.

In 2017, he left Parliament to become mayor of Greater Manchester, a region of about 2.8 million people in northern England. He has since been re-elected twice, most recently winning nearly two-thirds of the vote. Among his notable achievements in Manchester is the expansion of affordable public transportation. Housing and health care have also been central priorities throughout his tenure.

He is critical of Brexit, the UK's exit from the European Union in 2020, and describes himself as an advocate of "pro-business socialism." During the COVID-19 pandemic, Burnham clashed with then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson, demanding greater financial support for businesses and workers affected by lockdown restrictions. That confrontation, along with his general success in Manchester, earned him the nickname "King of the North."

In recent years, Burnham's main criticism of his Labour colleague Keir Starmer focused on the prime minister's cuts to welfare spending. Which policies Burnham would pursue should he become prime minister has so far remained largely undefined.

A working-class northerner

Burnham is deeply rooted in the former mining and industrial communities of northern England. Born in 1970 in Aintree, near Liverpool, he grew up in the village of Culcheth, with his father working as a technician and his mother as a medical assistant. While studying English at Cambridge University, Burnham later said he often felt like an outsider at the prestigious institution. Inspired by the miners' strike of the mid-1980s, he joined the Labour Party at age 14. He has been a lifelong supporter of Everton Football Club. His wife is Dutch, and they have three children. Burnham also has a tattoo of the worker bee — a symbol of industry and solidarity — on his right upper arm.

Today, Burnham is among the most popular politicians in the United Kingdom, and many supporters see him as Labour's best hope to counter the rise of Nigel Farage's right-wing populist Reform UK party. Yet since the 2016 Brexit referendum, the office of British prime minister has become somewhat precarious. Burnham would be the seventh person to hold the position since the referendum a decade ago. If he succeeds Starmer, he will inherit a country still grappling with deep political, economic, and social challenges.