Andy Burnham Family History

Andrew Murray Burnham was born on January 7th, 1970 to Roy and Eileen Burnham in Aintree, Liverpool.  He has working class roots.  His father was a BT engineer, his mother a GP receptionist.  He was the middle son of their three sons.

The family moved from Liverpool after Andy’s father had landed a new job in Manchester. Andy grew up in the quiet Cheshire village of Culcheth on the outskirts of Warrington.  He attended St Lewis Catholic Primary School there and St Aelred’s Roman Catholic High School in nearby Newton-le-Willows.

As a teenager he showed a keen interest in politics. He joined the Labour party at the age of fourteen after tuning into the BBC TV drama Boys From The Blackstuff which focused on the lives of those struggling in the Thatcher era.  “That episode has stayed with me,” Andy has said, “because my grandad worked on the docks.  I watched it with him.  There were tears streaming down his face.”

In 1994 he became a researcher for Labour Cabinet minister Tessa Jowell.  He then studied English at Fitzwilliam College in Cambridge (he later wrote that he struggled to be a part of things and felt like an imposter).  But he met his Dutch wife Frankie there and they wed in 2000.

Politics.  He entered Parliament as the MP for Leigh in Lancashire in 2001.  He experienced the New Labour’s glory years during his time in Parliament and rose to Cabinet rank under Gordon Brown.

However, Labour lost the 2010 election and he was in the Shadow Cabinet instead.  He contested for the Labour leadership twice, in 2010 and 2015, but lost both times.  Looking for new opportunities, he decided to quit Parliament in 2017 in order to stand for the newly created post of Mayor for Greater Manchester.

He won that mayoral election and was re-elected in 2021 and 2024.  For his role in campaigning to secure more funding for Northern communities during the COVID-19 pandemic, he was dubbed the “King of the North.”

His reputation enhanced, he sought a seat in Parliament in 2026 in order to challenge for the Labour party leadership, replacing Keir Starmer.  If successful this time he would become the next British Prime Minister.

He started this process in June by winning the Makerfield seat near Manchester by a clear margin.

Head North

Both Andy and his co-author Steve Rotheram of their 2024 book Head North became politically aware in the Thatcher years.  They would later be northern mayors, Andy of Greater Manchester and Steve of the Liverpool city region.  And they bonded over their outsiders’ distrust of the Westminster bubble and Government rule from London.

Their vision of equality in the book included the renationalisation of public transport networks, some long overdue care for the NHS, and a restructured education system serving as an engine for social mobility.  Plus they desired more devolution.  When the purse strings were being held fast by London careerists who worshipped at the altar of free market capitalism, this might have seemed like an uphill struggle. 

However, the Westminster status quo has since become even more unpopular with the general public.  When Andy began his campaign to lead the Labour party in 2026, he talked about forty years of neoliberal failure for the North.  The “King of the North” believed that he stood a good chance of winning votes with his new agenda.

What is Andy’s Heritage?

Andy’s lineage traces back to generations of English tradesfolk.  His Burnham surname, derived from the Old English words burna meaning “stream” and ham “homestead,” is found in many parts of England.

In Head North Andy reflected on this as a “privilege of plainness,” unburdened by the exoticism that might have elevated some politicians.  It would also insulate him from accusations of metropolitan detachment.

He has said that, being born in Liverpool, he is of Irish ancestry, has Scottish links in the past, and is close a bit as well to Wales.

Irish.  Andy has frequently spoken about his ancestry being tied to the Irish immigrants who relocated to the Liverpool area in the late 19th century.  His family history has revealed ancestors with surnames like Finnemore and Kelly, many of whom originated from Ireland and had come to work on the Liverpool docks.

One of Andy’s great-grandfathers was Eddie “Ned” Burke.  He was born in Cork in 1881 and had arrived in Liverpool with his wife Catherine in the early 1900’s.  As Private Ned Burke, he served in the King’s Liverpool Regiment on the Western Front during the First World War.  In September 1916 he was taken prisoner of war and died in a concentration camp two weeks before the end of the war.

His widow Catherine was left to bring up their five children in Liverpool after the war.  She took in boarders to help pay the way.

In 2015 Andy led the tributes to a later Eddie ‘Ned’ Burke, Eddie’s nephew, on his own death at the age of ninety-two.  This Eddie had given 74 years service as governor to All Saints Catholic Primary School in Anfield.  He was a Liverpool city councillor for thirty years.  And he was as well Andy’s third cousin and a close personal friend.

Irish and Scottish.  Andy’s maternal line came from the marriage of Eddie Burke Sr’s daughter Kate and Jimmy Murray, Scottish, in Liverpool in 1934.  Their daughter Eileen, Andy’s mother, was born five years later.  It was Eileen, a Catholic, who brought up her children as Catholics and had them instructed in Catholic schools.

Liverpool as Home

These Burnhams are Scousers.  Andy’s father Roy had grown up in a district known as Old Roan in Aintree, Liverpool.

Paternal Side.  Andy’s great grandfather Francis Burnham had in fact been born in London.  But he had migrated north to Liverpool and had married his wife Edith Bellion there in 1914.  They had two sons, Francis and Kenneth.

Kenneth was just seventeen when he became a father.  His son Roy was a war baby, conceived before his mother walked down the aisle with him in early 1941.  Roy might have achieved a great deal in his education.  But his parents split up in 1950 and he ended up in a secondary modern school instead.

Roy has said that he could have done better.  However, because of the turbulence in his life at that time, he had no chance.  In fact, according to Andy, he did achieve a lot.  Yet he always had the sense that his life had been sort of diverted.  He really didn’t want this to happen to his children.  And so his sons went to University.

Maternal Side.  Eileen’s father Jimmy Murray worked on the docks and drove a lorry for Tate & Lyle in Liverpool.  His wife Kate grew up on Great Mersey Street near the docks and worked for the brewery as a cleaner or in their kitchens.  She was ambitious for her grandchildren.  Sadly she ended up in distressed circumstances in a care home.

And Later.  The family’s move from urban Liverpool to suburban Cheshire in the early 1970’s was pragmatic:  The location was halfway between Liverpool and Manchester.  Roy’s new job in Manchester demanded the change.  But the family retained their Scouse accents and blue-collar ethos; and the Everton football matches remained a sacred ritual for them.

Indeed, supporting Everton had earlier helped to heal the Catholic/Protestant divide between Roy and his wife Eileen when they were courting.  The day that Eileen was going to present Roy to her Catholic parents was also the day that Everton was playing away to Blackburn.  When they learnt that Roy was going to the match, as they were too, they said that it would be fine to meet him.

Andy Burnham’s Family Tree

• Catherine (Kate) Burke m. James (Jimmy) Murray in Liverpool in 1934
• – Eileen Murray (b. 1939)

• Kenneth Roy Burnham, telephone engineer m. Eileen Mary Murray in Ormskirk, Lancashire in 1965
• – Nicholas (Nick) Burnham (b. 1968), school principal
• – Andrew (Andy) Burnham (b. 1970), politician
• – John Burnham (b. 1974) , school teacher

• Andrew (Andy) Burnham m. Marie-France (Frankie) van Heel from Holland (b. 1970) in 2000
• – Jimmy Burnham (b. 2000)
• – Rosie Burnham (b. 2002)
• – Annie Burnham (b. 2005)