Who Is Andy Burnham? The ‘Charismatic King Of North’ Who May Rule As Next UK PM After Keir Starmer

Last Updated:June 22, 2026, 15:36 IST

Andy Burnham, newly elected MP for Makerfield and King of the North, triggers a Labour leadership crisis and emerges as frontrunner to replace Keir Starmer as UK Prime Minister

Andy Burnham is a senior British Labour Party politician who serves as the newly elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Makerfield and is the leading frontrunner to replace Keir Starmer as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Known widely by his nickname, the “King of the North," Burnham positioned himself as Starmer’s chief internal rival following his decisive victory in a June 2026 parliamentary by-election, forcing a leadership crisis that caused Starmer’s premiership to collapse.

BURNHAM’S RISE IN POLITICS

Born in Liverpool in 1970, Burnham was educated at the University of Cambridge before entering politics. He served as an MP for Leigh from 2001 to 2017 and held major cabinet positions under Gordon Brown, including Health Secretary and Culture Secretary. He ran for the Labour leadership twice before (losing in 2010 and 2015). In 2017, he left Westminster to become the Mayor of Greater Manchester, winning three consecutive terms.

He earned the title “King of the North" during the COVID-19 pandemic when he fiercely clashed with Boris Johnson’s Conservative government, accusing Westminster of a “London-centric" approach that harmed northern communities. As Mayor, he successfully brought the local public transport network under public control via the “Bee Network".

THE CHARISMATIC LEADER

Over the past few years, Burnham has quietly become one of the most popular politicians in the country. His charismatic persona has managed to overshadow any contradictions in his public image, like his insistence he is an outsider to Westminster, despite becoming a parliamentary researcher at 24, a special adviser at 28 and a member of parliament for the first time at just 31.

During his 16 years in parliament, he served in both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown’s governments, eventually rising to become health minister before twice running unsuccessfully for the Labour leadership, in 2010 and 2015. In that second leadership election, he was roundly defeated by Jeremy Corbyn, a veteran socialist whose victory dragged the party leftwards.

Although Burnham initially served in Corbyn’s shadow cabinet, becoming Manchester mayor in 2017 allowed him to largely sit on the sidelines of the factional wars that consumed Labour during and shortly after Corbyn’s leadership.

So, where much of Labour’s left flank despises Starmer for his role in moving the party to the center and ejecting Corbyn from it, Burnham is less associated with this era.

And as Manchester mayor, he showcased his ability to stand up to Westminster in incidents that encapsulated the longstanding North-South divide in British politics, burnished his outsider status and gave rise to his nickname “The King of the North."

During his tenure, Greater Manchester’s economy surged and he oversaw improvements to its public transit network, as well launching a major home-building program.

He had a “very clear ambition for Greater Manchester, for its economic success, for social inclusion, for everybody being able to live a good life in the city region," his deputy mayor Kate Green told CNN.

“He’s also been very focused on things that will make a difference for people’s everyday lives."

Other flagship pledges, like an ambitious promise to end homelessness in Manchester by 2020, were not fulfilled, and critics argue that much of the groundwork for Burnham’s big achievements had already been laid by the time he came to power.

Still, as the face of Manchester’s rejuvenation, Burnham assumed a US governor-style regional leader profile.

‘MANCHESTERISM’

In Labour circles, there is an old joke poking fun at Burnham’s chameleon-like ability to blend into whichever set of ideas is in vogue on the left at that moment in time. “A Blairite, a Brownite and a Corbynite walk into a pub," the joke goes. “The barman says, ‘What’re you drinking Andy?’"

For all his shapeshifting, more broadly Burnham “is associated with the ‘soft left’ of Labour," said Lotte Hargrave, a political science researcher at Manchester University. “You’d put him a bit further left perhaps than Starmer, but certainly further right than someone like Corbyn."

And in the media, at least, Burnham has become associated with “Manchesterism," a term referring to his time as Manchester mayor.

For Burnham, “Manchesterism" means “business-friendly socialism" or the “end of neoliberalism, the end of trickle-down economics that has left out places like Makerfield," as he said in his campaign launch video.

Most importantly for Mathew Lawrence, founder of the Common Wealth thinktank who is seen as one of the intellectual voices behind Burnham, Manchesterism entails getting “better control of essential services, whether that’s housing, water, energy, transport that have been systematically outsourced, deregulated, privatized."

Other pillars of Manchesterism, according to Lawrence, include devolving power from Westminster to other towns and cities across the country, as well as a “pro- enterprise culture… but trying to do it on terms that actually directly benefit working people."

The program is not so different to some policies already pursued by the current Labour government. It has created Great British Energy, a publicly owned investment company, to help fund clean power, and Great British Railways to bring the rail network under greater public control.

“There are some real similarities and continuities of argument," Lawrence acknowledged. “It’s not necessarily a radical break, but it is a big acceleration."

LABOUR IN TURMOIL

With Burnham’s return to front line politics, a leadership race seems all but inevitable. Labour has teetered on the edge of one for weeks after those disastrous local election results, and only Burnham’s inability to run before now seems to have delayed one.

As Labour’s popularity has declined during its two years in government, the party has started tearing itself apart trying to settle on a diagnosis and remedy for the country’s many problems. Adding urgency to its efforts is the need to stave off any prospect of Reform UK winning a general election.

And any potential Burnham policy platform would face the same spending and political constraints as Starmer. Britain has little money to spend, while the country’s political climate is becoming increasingly fractious.

If he tacks too far right on issues like immigration, Burnham risks losing Labour’s progressive, graduate base in the cities to the populist left-wing Green Party, but if he tacks too far left, he risks alienating its traditional working-class base.

Throughout the campaign, Burnham tiptoed around these faultlines, aligning his positions more closely with those of the working-class voters in Makerfield.

On immigration, he has staked out a position closer to the current government’s, backing interior minister Shabana Mahmood’s plans to end permanent refugee status and rowing back on his previous calls to allow immigrants without settled status to claim benefits.

Similarly, he has diluted his criticism towards the fiscal rules, the self-imposed constraints that commit the government to spending less than it borrows, after some jitters in the financial market. And on Brexit, he has distanced himself from his comments in September, in which he said he would like to see Britain rejoin the European Union in his lifetime.

He will take his seat in parliament with the nation’s eyes watching his every move.

With CNN, Reuters inputs

About the Author

Manjiri Joshi

At the news desk for 20 years, the story of her life has revolved around finding pun, facts while reporting, on radio, heading a daily newspaper desk, teaching mass media students to now editing speci...Read More

News world Who Is Andy Burnham? The ‘Charismatic King Of North’ Who May Rule As Next UK PM After Keir Starmer

Read More