Born in Liverpool in January 1970, Burnham joined the Labour Party at the age of 15 and later studied English at the University of Cambridge before entering politics.
He was first elected to Parliament in 2001 and went on to hold several senior positions under the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. His roles included posts in the Home Office, the Treasury and the Department of Health. Burnham became Culture Secretary in 2008 before being appointed Health Secretary in 2009, overseeing England’s National Health Service (NHS).
Burnham has twice sought the Labour leadership. He lost to Ed Miliband in 2010 and to Jeremy Corbyn in 2015.
In 2017, he left Westminster to become the first elected Mayor of Greater Manchester. As mayor, he prioritised public transport, housing and employment. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he gained national prominence for repeatedly challenging the UK government over support for northern England, earning the nickname “King of the North”—a reference to the television series Game of Thrones.
In 2026, Burnham returned to Parliament as the MP for Makerfield. Reform UK emerged as his nearest rival but finished more than 9,000 votes behind Labour. While Labour secured around 45% of the vote in Makerfield in the 2024 general election, the party’s vote share rose to nearly 55% under Burnham’s candidacy.
