Andy Burnham Has Served in UK Politics for 44 Years

The mayor of Greater Manchester has been active in politics for 44 years. In a 2013 interview he acknowledged that some of his actions might appear as betrayal and said he felt guilty about that.

He described himself as a longtime fan of The Smiths and credited the band with persuading him as a sixth-former to attend university. Listening to the group gave him the idea that he could aspire to bigger things beyond where he was, he said. He noted that the music now felt trapped in Eighties indie-land, showing an ability to change and move on.

The mayor joined the Labour Party at age 15. He worked as a parliamentary researcher and special adviser before becoming a member of Parliament. He served as a junior minister under one prime minister and as health secretary under another before shifting away from the idea of patient choice that had driven earlier NHS reforms.

He contested the 2010 Labour leadership election as a continuity candidate and finished fourth. In the 2015 contest he positioned himself as the most left-wing candidate who was not Jeremy Corbyn and finished second. A journalist who has followed his record in Manchester described him as having reinvented himself as mayor and called him a charismatic chameleon.

He is the only politician in Britain with a net positive opinion-poll rating. In Greater Manchester he is credited with introducing distinctive yellow buses as part of a successfully integrated transport service. He stood up for the city against what were seen as unfair restrictions during the pandemic.

His time as mayor since 2017 has coincided with a period of growth. Skyscrapers in the city centre are a visible symbol of new confidence and prosperity. He is also regarded positively outside the north-west, possibly because he is not a Westminster politician.

Critics have said he wants to be loved and avoids making difficult decisions. His early success in cutting rough sleeping through new shelters saw numbers later return almost to where they were when he was first elected. His overall record in the city-region led him to coin the term Manchesterism to describe his politics.