66 Facts About Andy Burnham

Andy Burnham 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.

Andy Burnham served as Shadow Home Secretary from 2015 to 2016 and was Member of Parliament for Leigh from 2001 to 2017.

Andy Burnham 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.

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

Andy Burnham served as a Parliamentary Private Secretary from 2003 to 2005.

Andy Burnham 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.

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

When Gordon Brown became Prime Minister in 2007, Andy 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.

Andy 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.

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

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

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

Andrew Murray Andy Burnham was born on 7 January 1970 in Aintree, Lancashire.

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

Andy Burnham 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.

Andy Burnham joined the Transport and General Workers' Union in 1995.

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

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

In June 2008, he apologised to the director of pressure group Liberty, Shami Chakrabarti, after she threatened to sue him for libel for smearing her reputation in an article Andy Burnham had written for Progress magazine.

In late 2008, Andy Burnham announced government plans to tighten controls on internet content in order to "even up" what he described as an imbalance with TV regulations.

In 2014 when Andy Burnham spoke at the 25th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster he was cheered and applauded by the crowd.

Andy Burnham was again promoted becoming Secretary of State for Health in June 2009.

Andy Burnham held the post until the Labour government resigned after the 2010 general election.

In July 2009, a month after he became health secretary, Andy Burnham launched an independent inquiry chaired by the QC Robert Francis into unusually high mortality rates at Stafford Hospital.

Andy Burnham became Shadow Secretary of State for Health after May 2010 following the defeat of Gordon Brown's government.

Andy Burnham made policy commitments including the creation of a national care service and replacing inheritance tax with a land value tax.

In October 2010, Andy Burnham was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Education and election co-ordinator for the Labour Party.

Andy Burnham argued for moving the education system back towards a comprehensive system.

In July 2013 The Daily Telegraph reported that Andy Burnham's staff had edited his Wikipedia page to remove criticisms of his handling of the Stafford Hospital scandal.

Andy Burnham's office claimed they had removed false statements that had been drawn to their attention.

On 13 May 2015, Andy Burnham announced that he would stand to replace Ed Miliband in the 2015 leadership election.

Andy Burnham was criticised for jokingly saying that Labour should have a woman leader "when the time is right", with the New Statesman saying that he had "tripped over his mouth again".

Andy Burnham said that he would resign from the Shadow Cabinet if Labour supported leaving NATO, something which Jeremy Corbyn had talked about.

Andy Burnham was criticised for refusing to talk to "The Sun" newspaper when it emerged he had been interviewed by "The Sun" in his previous run for the Labour leadership, and had been photographed in the back of a cab for the newspaper.

Andy Burnham abstained on the government's welfare bill, despite having previously described the legislation as "unsupportable".

In September 2015, Andy Burnham accepted an appointment as shadow home secretary in the first Shadow Cabinet of Jeremy Corbyn and remained in the role after the 2016 reshuffle.

On 27 April 2016, the day after the Hillsborough inquest verdict that found the 96 Hillsborough deaths had occurred as a result of unlawful killing, Andy Burnham made a speech to the House of Commons calling for those responsible to be held to account.

Andy Burnham used the debate to present a raft of evidence stating "this scandal amounts to a criminal cover-up on an industrial scale" and that "these are criminal acts".

Andy Burnham said that if the Government did not set up an Investigation into the scandal that he would refer his evidence to the police.

On 5 May 2016, a spokesperson for Andy Burnham confirmed that he had been approached by party officials in Greater Manchester, asking him to consider resigning from the Shadow Cabinet of Jeremy Corbyn in order to run in the upcoming mayoral election in 2017.

Andy Burnham was selected as the Labour candidate in August 2016.

In September 2016, Andy Burnham said that he would resign as Shadow Home Secretary once a replacement had been found, in order to concentrate on his mayoral bid.

However, the 2017 general election was declared a fortnight before the mayoral election; Andy Burnham did not stand as a candidate.

Andy Burnham was elected to the new role of mayor of Greater Manchester on 5 May 2017.

Andy Burnham pledged to end rough sleeping in Greater Manchester by 2020 in November 2019 he admitted he would miss his target.

Pensioners in London get free travel on all public transport in London from the age of 60, while Andy Burnham kept the Manchester system linked to the much later state pension age.

Andy Burnham pledged to bring Manchester's bus network back into public ownership by 2025.

In March 2020, Andy Burnham called for clearer advice on slowing the spread of Coronavirus, citing his previous experience as health secretary during the 2009 swine flu pandemic.

Andy Burnham has said that he joined the Labour Party at the age of 15 after having been "radicalised" by the UK miners' strike.

Andy Burnham is a strong opponent of nationalism, which he has described as an "ugly brand of politics".

Andy Burnham's politics have been described as soft left by a number of media outlets, including the Financial Times, the New Statesman, and LabourList.

Andy Burnham is a supporter of LGBT rights and voted in favour of same-sex marriage in 2013.

Andy Burnham has advocated a National Care Service, integrating care services into the National Health Service.

Andy Burnham described the mansion tax proposed by Ed Miliband as "the politics of envy", saying he knew it would lose votes when his mother phoned and told him it represented a return to the 1970s.

Andy Burnham is a strong supporter of devolving power and, in his 2015 leadership campaign, criticised the "Westminster Bubble", the London-centric focus in British politics and perceived detachment from life outside Westminster.

Andy Burnham is a supporter of an elected House of Lords and for switching elections to the House of Commons to a form of proportional representation.

Andy Burnham has a brother, Nick, who is the principal of Cardinal Newman College, Preston.

Andy Burnham married Marie-France van Heel, who is Dutch, in 2000, having been in a relationship since university.

Andy Burnham was the honorary chairman of Leigh Centurions for a short time and is an honorary vice-president.

Andy Burnham was a talented junior cricketer and keen footballer, and competed at both sports for his college.

Andy Burnham has played for Labour's "Demon Eyes" football team and is a lifelong fan of Premier League football club Everton.

In July 2003, Andy Burnham played for Conference club Leigh RMI in a pre-season friendly against Everton.

In December 2017 it was announced that Andy Burnham would succeed Dean Andrew as president of the Rugby Football League in July 2018.

Andy Burnham was replaced by Tony Adams as president of the league in the summer of 2019.

Andy Burnham was portrayed by Matthew McNulty in Anne, an ITV miniseries about the Hillsborough disaster.