On the 22nd (local time), with the resignation of Keir Starmer, 63, as U.K. prime minister, Member of Parliament Andy Burnham, 56, quickly emerged as a leading candidate to become the next prime minister. Burnham, who enjoys broad support from lawmakers in the party, recently secured a seat in the House of Commons in a by-election, meeting the eligibility requirement to run in the party leadership race.
According to the BBC, if Burnham registers as the sole candidate by Aug. 16, the deadline Starmer set for the party leadership contest, he can be elected leader of the Labor Party without a separate vote. Immediately after Starmer announced his resignation, Burnham said, "Keir's decision is the start of implementation, and this process must be carried out with order and responsibility," adding, "I will put myself forward as part of that process," signaling his intention to run for prime minister.
Burnham was born in the suburbs of Liverpool to a father who was a telephone engineer and a mother who was a hospital receptionist, and he joined the Labor Party at 15. After studying English literature at Cambridge University, he followed a typical elite path in British politics, working as a researcher for Tessa Jowell, then a member representing a South London constituency, and as an adviser to former Culture Minister Chris Smith.
He formally entered politics in 2001 when, at age 31, he was elected to the House of Commons. Over the next 17 years in Parliament, he served in the governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown as Minister for Culture and Health, as chief secretary to the Treasury, and as Vice Minister at the Home Office and the Department of Health. After the Labor Party lost power, during its time as the main opposition, he held key posts in the shadow Cabinet, including shadow health, education, and home secretary.
Burnham has twice sought the Labor Party leadership. He ran in the party leadership contests in 2010 and 2015 but lost to Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn, respectively. The Washington Post (WP) assessed, "The two past defeats look like dress rehearsals for the opportunity Burnham faces now."
After leaving national politics in 2017, Burnham won that year's local election to become mayor of Greater Manchester, one of the U.K.'s largest city-regions, with 63.4% of the vote. He then won two more terms, establishing himself as a politician who represents the voice of the northern English working class. According to Bloomberg News, during his tenure the Greater Manchester economy grew at twice the national average pace.
As mayor, Burnham pushed through major reforms, including shifting city buses to a public operating system. He gained national recognition during the COVID-19 pandemic by directly criticizing the central government's quarantine policies. In 2020, after publicly arguing that lockdown measures were being applied unfairly to his region, he was nicknamed the "King of the North," a nod to the TV series "Game of Thrones."
Robert Ford, a professor of political science at the University of Manchester, said, "Burnham took issues that might otherwise have amounted to somewhat bland technocratic policies and turned them into a David-and-Goliath fight," adding, "His greatest strengths are excellent communication and storytelling. He is adept at effectively conveying to voters who he is, whom he works for, and what he aims to do."
Within the Labor Party, Burnham is categorized as a moderate leftist. He has advocated "Manchesterism," which calls for devolving policy authority closely tied to daily life—such as housing, public infrastructure, transportation, and education—to local governments to achieve economic development suited to regional conditions. Throughout his political career, he has also criticized British politics and the media for being excessively London-centric, arguing that the resulting regional inequality has hindered national progress. In a recent interview, he said Britain "has been on the wrong path for 40 years."
However, he has also taken positions that differ from the traditional left wing of the Labor Party, such as mentioning the possibility of cutting welfare expenditure to increase defense spending. Last year he sparked controversy by saying the Labor Party "must get out of hock to the bond markets," signaling that the government could pursue more active fiscal policy. He later explained that his remarks had caused misunderstanding, and recently he reaffirmed his commitment to maintaining fiscal discipline.
If Burnham becomes prime minister, he will face the task of quelling voter dissatisfaction with the Starmer government. If he takes an overly right-wing stance on issues such as immigration, he could lose urban, progressive, highly educated supporters to the Green Party Korea, while if he chooses an overly left-wing line, he risks losing support from the traditional working class.
Burnham has yet to present a concrete plan for national governance that shows the direction of Britain after Starmer. John Tonge, a professor of political science at the University of Liverpool, said, "Burnham has achieved successful results as mayor of Greater Manchester, but becoming prime minister is a challenge on a completely different level," likening it to "moving up from minor league baseball to the big stage." He also noted, "Burnham's rise does not mean the Labor Party's electoral competitiveness has been restored," cautioning against overestimating the Burnham boom.