Prime Minister Andy Burnham has cancelled official engagements on Monday and Tuesday following the death of his father, Roy, according to the BBC. Burnham had been due to host a meeting with business leaders in Downing Street later.
Burnham has previously discussed his father’s Alzheimer’s disease while explaining his determination to reform adult social care in England. He said Roy did not know that he had become prime minister in July because of his condition.
Before entering Downing Street, Burnham told the Times that this was a source of sadness because his father would otherwise have been proud. He described his achievement as belonging to his father and the wider family, even though Roy was unaware of it.
Burnham later said care-home staff showed his father footage of him entering Downing Street, describing the moment as wonderful. He has also spoken about being overwhelmed by the skills and professionalism of the care workers supporting Roy.
In July, Burnham referred to his father’s experience while pledging reforms to adult social care, saying he wanted to help “my dad and the millions like him”. He has described Roy, a former telephone engineer, as having raised him and his two brothers with laughter, love and support, alongside their mother, Eileen, in Culcheth, Cheshire.
Burnham wrote in his 2024 book, Look North, that neither of his parents had attended university, but that both had been determined their three sons should go. The BBC published a photograph of Burnham with his parents after he was selected as Labour’s candidate for mayor of Greater Manchester in 2016.