UK PM Andy Burnham loses father, cancels official engagements

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has cancelled his official engagements scheduled for Monday and Tuesday following the death of his father, Roy Burnham.

Burnham was expected to speak at the Trades Union Congress, TUC, conference in Brighton on Tuesday, alongside other official commitments.

His father, who had been living with Alzheimer’s disease, was receiving care at a residential care home before his death.

In an interview with The Times in July, Burnham opened up about his father’s condition and revealed that Roy was unaware that his son was on the verge of becoming prime minister.

“That’s a sadness because he would be proud. But the way I look at it, it’s his achievement as well. A whole family achievement, although he doesn’t know it,” Burnham said.

Burnham has previously drawn on his experience of seeing his father receive care to explain his commitment to reforming and improving social care across the UK.

In one of his first speeches as prime minister, he paid tribute to care workers for the “skill and the care and the professionalism” they demonstrated while looking after people such as his father. He also called for improved wages for those working in the care sector.

Opening Monday’s sitting of the House of Commons, Speaker Lindsay Hoyle expressed sympathy to Burnham and his family over the bereavement.

“I am sure the whole house will want to send our best wishes to him and his family at this sad time,” Hoyle said.

Burnham had earlier written about his father and his childhood in Culcheth, near Warrington in Cheshire, in Head North, a 2024 book he co-authored with Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram.

He described his upbringing as a happy one, recalling life with his father, mother Eileen and his two brothers.

Roy worked as a telephone engineer, while Eileen was employed as a GP’s receptionist.

“Neither my dad, Roy, nor my mum, Eileen, went to university. But both could have done if they had grown up in a different time and in a different place,” Burnham wrote.

“Their knowledge of that fact seemed to make them all the more determined that their three sons would go. But that did not make them pushy parents in any way.

“Their approach was one of quiet encouragement and confidence-building. Our family home in Culcheth was always full of music, life, laughter, love and support.”