Andy Burnham: How the failed Labour leadership contender became the king of the north

Manchester’s mayor is a ‘professional northerner’ and a winner in the new game of territorial, transactional politics, writes Sean O'Grady

Struggles with Whitehall have given Burnham a national profile (Getty)

Andy Burnham, minister in the Blair and Brown governments and reborn as the mayor of Greater Manchester was almost prime minister, you know. He may now be king of the north, an unlikely sex symbol and the moral victor of his short war with Boris Johnson, but he could now be in an even more exalted position.

It is forgotten now, but way back in 2015, after Ed Miliband had led Labour to a poor election result and quit the leadership, Burnham was the favourite to succeed him. Had some Labour MPs who should have known better not “lent” the nomination to put Jeremy Corbyn on the ballot, Burnham might well have won, beating Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall. As it was, Burnham lost badly to Corbyn – 19 per cent to 59 per cent.

It’s not the might-have-been that seems to bother many, though the defeat hurt Burnham. He tried to put the best spin he could on it a few years later, safely ensconced in power in Manchester: “It’s hard – especially being the frontrunner–  but nothing is a given in politics, hence why I fell out of love with Westminster. The defeat was bruising; leadership elections always are. Getting rejected from people you know was tough, but it epitomised the shallowness of Westminster. I was always the loyal Labour person, a team player and thought it would serve me well, but it didn’t come my way, and it exposed the fickleness of politics at a national level”.