LONDON (AP) — Andy Burnham is a political insider turned outsider who aims to be Britain’s next prime minister.
The 56-year-old politician presents himself as an amiable northern everyman who prefers T-shirts to a suit and tie and spends spare time playing soccer or spinning 1990s tunes during DJ battles.
He’s also an experienced politician whose career has taken him from high-level government jobs to the mayoralty of Greater Manchester, and now to the cusp of the prime minister’s office.
Burnham is expected to challenge Prime Minister Keir Starmer after winning a seat in Parliament in a special election he hailed as a “turning point” for U.K. politics.
His nickname is inspired by ‘Game of Thrones’
Burnham was born and raised in a pocket of northwest England between Liverpool and Manchester, the son of a British Telecom engineer and a receptionist. He joined the Labour Party as a teenager, attended Cambridge University and was first elected to Parliament in 2001.
He was a lawmaker for a decade and a half, rising through the ranks under Prime Minister Tony Blair and serving in Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Cabinet between 2007 and 2010.
He ran twice for the leadership of the Labour Party, in 2010 and 2015, and lost badly each time, before quitting Westminster to run for Manchester mayor.
His tenure has seen him nicknamed the King of the North, a “Game of Thrones”-inspired nod both to his championing of his home region and his barely disguised political ambition.
He gained the moniker during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he harangued Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson over what he called a “London-centric” approach to the crisis.
Burnham has led the Greater Manchester region since 2017, overseeing rapid regeneration for the city where the Industrial Revolution was forged. The city center has boomed, with skyscrapers blooming on vacant post-industrial sites. Many residents praise him for championing the city. He took a piecemeal public transport system under public control, branded it the Bee Network and improved its services.
He has also won praise for supporting the campaign for justice for victims of the Hillsborough disaster, when 97 Liverpool soccer fans were killed in a crush at a game in Sheffield in 1989. Years of advocacy led by victims’ families exposed mistakes and wrongdoing by police – who initially spread a false narrative blaming drunken fans – and extracted an apology from the government.
He pledges to end trickle-down economics
Burnham is perceived to be to the political left of Starmer – an asset with Labour members – and is acknowledged as one of the party’s best communicators. The rather stiff public speaker of his earlier leadership bids has been replaced by a relaxed figure in jeans and open-necked shirts.
His three mayoral election victories and decisive win in Thursday’s election in Makerfield, where he trounced the candidate of the anti-immigration party Reform UK, have cemented his status as a winner. Many in the party hope he can reverse Labour’s precipitous decline in popularity since Starmer won an election landslide two years ago.
Makerfield voter Ellen Picton, 66, said she was “absolutely thrilled” by Burnham’s victory.
“I believe that he’s a man for the common people,” she said. “Andy is like one of us, and he understands what we are going through.”
Burnham is pledging to repeat on a national scale his signature brand of “Manchesterism” – a politics that, he likes to say, puts people and place before party and centers on regions ignored by governments in London.
“What we’ve built in Greater Manchester needs to go national,” Burnham said during the campaign. “I know what it is to turn places around.”
But it remains to be seen whether he can have national appeal, said Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London.
“Calling him King of the North in some ways, I think, raises the question of whether he can also be King of the South, King of the East and King of the West,″ Bale said. “However, he does seem to have the kind of X factor that encourages people to think of him as not an ordinary politician, somebody who can communicate with normal people, someone who can speak human.”
In a postelection speech to supporters, Burnham sketched out his priorities: better vocational education and jobs for young people, lower energy bills and rail fares and “an end to trickle down economics, which didn’t trickle down very much at all to places like this.”
Critics say Burnham’s politics are vague and fail to grapple with tough issues, such as where the money will come from to pay for his pledges. And they note that running a country of 70 million is a lot different from overseeing a city region of 3 million.
Nonetheless Burnham now has momentum that could propel him into 10 Downing Street.
“Andy Burnham is probably one of the most popular politicians in the country,” Bale said. “Although, to be honest, that is not saying much.”
___
Kwiyeon Ha in Ashton-in-Makerfield, England contributed to this story.

Washington, D.C., City Councilmember Janeese Lewis George, a democratic socialist, has won the Democratic primary for mayor, NBC News projects, putting her in line to manage the capital city and its relationship with President Donald Trump.
With three-fourths of the expected vote tallied, Lewis George led Kenyan McDuffie, a former city councilmember, 53% to 37%. McDuffie had conceded the primary to Lewis George Thursday morning.
See results here
“Earlier this morning, I called Councilmember Janeese Lewis George to congratulate her on her victory and wish her success as she prepares for the general election,” McDuffie said in a statement.
Lewis George, who has held a council seat stretching from the northern corner of the city since she was first elected in 2020, also faced five other Democratic hopefuls who received single-digit support.
Lewis George is on course to be a heavy general election favorite in the deep-blue city, and the primary marks another major advance for democratic socialists in municipal politics around the country.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is in his first year in office after a swift and surprising rise in his city, while Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman advanced to a runoff earlier this month in the race for mayor there, where an early Los Angeles Times poll indicates a close race against current Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who is also a Democrat.
In Washington, current Mayor Muriel Bowser is retiring after three terms defined in part by Trump and his time in the White House. Bowser has had a more conciliatory relationship with the president during his second term. When Trump deployed National Guard troops to Washington last year in a bid to lower crime rates, Bowser opposed but accepted the move, which also happened in other cities around the country.
Trump commented on the race earlier this month, telling reporters at the White House that “we won’t put up with it” if Lewis George won and that he would consider a federal takeover of Washington.
“Threatening Home Rule because you do not like how residents vote is an attack on democracy itself. The people of D.C. elect the mayor of D.C. And they want someone who will stand up to Donald Trump,” Lewis George said in a statement responding to Trump’s comments.
While Trump loomed over the race, local issues took center stage, as the candidates discussed plans to lower crime and promote affordability, especially with regard to housing.
This was Washington’s first mayoral race since voters passed a ballot measure instituting ranked-choice voting, though it didn’t figure into the Democratic mayoral results. The system applies when no candidate gets a majority of first-place votes.
Now, instead of victory going to a candidate with a plurality, support from lower-performing candidates is reallocated to those voters’ next choices until one candidate receives a majority of the vote.

From 2h ago
Dedication ceremony for Obama Presidential Center under way in Chicago
Meanwhile, in Chicago, thousands ⁠of invited guests, led by former presidents and heads of state, converged on a lakefront park to dedicate the Obama Presidential Center, a sprawling campus of granite, nature and art designed as a hub of civic life and culture honoring the 44th president of the United States, Reuters reported.
Former president Barack ⁠Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama were ⁠joined at the event by the other ​three living former presidents — former presidents Bill Clinton, George W Bush and Joe Biden — and their wives, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush and Jill Biden.
Obama’s two daughters, Malia and Sasha, sat with their parents on the main stage of the ceremony.
Reuters reports that the roster ⁠of VIPs in attendance also included former vice-president Kamala Harris and her spouse, Douglas Emhoff, former US House speaker Nancy Pelosi and such foreign dignitaries as former German chancellor Angela Merkel and former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau.
The occasion, under partly cloudy skies, marked the ceremonial opening of the Obama Center, an $850 million development that local historians say ⁠marks the greatest single investment in a century in Chicago’s long-neglected South Side.
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Key events
Trump administration quietly shifts $352m in federal funds for White House ballroom
Joseph Gedeon
Donald Trump’s administration has quietly redirected $352m in federal funds designated for the Secret Service toward the president’s controversial White House ballroom project, despite repeated promises by Trump that the construction would be financed by private donations
The funds were drawn from the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Trump’s signature tax legislation passed last summer on Republican-only votes. The law stipulates the money may only be spent on Secret Service personnel, training facilities, technology and related costs, not construction.
About $340.8m of the funding was placed into an account labeled “Procurement, Construction, and Improvements” on 12 June, according to the office of management and budget (OMB) database. Another account labeled “Operations and Support” was also approved the same day, adding another $10.75m to the budget.
The move came after Congress explicitly refused to provide $1bn in funds for the “East Wing Modernization Project”, the Trump administration’s official name for a 90,000-sq-ft ballroom being built on the site of the White House’s demolished East Wing.
The administration argued the funds were needed for legitimate security upgrades, pointing to recent threats against Trump, including an alleged plot to attack Sunday’s UFC Freedom 250 event on the White House south lawn.
“The East Wing Modernization Project is inextricably tied to the security of the president, the White House grounds and the certain security infrastructure assets,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said. “President Trump and generous American patriots are funding the ballroom to the tune of approximately $400m, which will be a secure and appropriate venue for presidents for generations to come.”
Those disrupted attacks, Ingle said, “proves exactly why” the project is needed for events at the White House, which include “drone-proof structures and drone ports among other critical security enhancements”.
Senior legislators were unconvinced. “That’s a big problem,” Thom Tillis, a Republican senator from North Carolina who is retiring at the end of the year, told Notus.
double quotation markThat sounds like a different way to fund the East Wing project. On its face it doesn’t sound right.
Brian Schatz, a Democratic senator from Hawaii on the appropriations committee, also told the outlet:
double quotation markI don’t know whether it’s the ballroom, but it sounds like the ballroom.
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The art of the fail? Trump’s Iran deal – podcast
Donald Trump is claiming his Iran peace plan is a victory for Washington, despite the 14-point agreement revealing significant concessions to Tehran. Under the deal, Iran will reopen the strait of Hormuz in exchange for sanctions relief and the release of frozen assets, while talks will continue over the fate of Iran’s nuclear programme.
In today’s edition of The Latest podcast, Nosheen Iqbal speaks to the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour.
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Iran has announced plans to introduce a system of maritime fees in the strait of Hormuz in two months, after the 60-day period of negotiation that has been triggered by the signing of the memorandum of understanding, my colleague Patrick Wintour reports.
Claiming a historic victory over the US, Tehran said the strait was under its control and a European plan for a naval mission to escort ships though the strait would not be welcome.
It comes as the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reports that Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel “will maintain the security zone in south Lebanon as long as our security needs require it”, referring to the more than 600 sq km of Lebanese territory occupied by Israeli troops along the border.
On Iran, Netanyahu stated that Israel would continue to “adhere to the supreme objective” of not allowing Tehran to acquire nuclear weapons.
Iran insists the deal referring to territorial integrity of Lebanon requires a full Israeli withdrawal, making Donald Trump accountable for Israel’s withdrawal.
Here’s Patrick’s report:
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Politico also quotes Senate majority leader John Thune as saying he anticipates an administration briefing on the US-Iran memorandum of understanding “early next week”.
Thune said he felt the deal is “good for Americans” because it opens up the strait of Hormuz, but warned on the $300bn fund:
double quotation markI don’t think there ought to be any financial incentives or any financial relief given to Iran absent their commitment to end the nuclear program.
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As they gear up to face tough midterm elections in November, some Republicans are relieved at the memorandum of understanding with Iran – though many are still privately questioning what the purpose of Trump’s war actually was.
After the president said yesterday that if he had not struck a deal, “the alternative would be a worldwide depression”, one House Republican told Politico:
double quotation markThe president didn’t mean to, but he effectively acknowledged he lost the war. It’s no longer worth the economic price.
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GOP Senate armed services chair slams US-Iran deal as ‘completely out of step with the president’s goals’
While JD Vance was briefing reporters earlier, Republican senator Roger Wicker, who is chair of the Senate armed services committee, said he was “concerned that the memorandum of understanding negotiates away the victories of Operation Epic Fury in ways that are completely out of step with the president’s goals.”
The $300bn fund for the reconstruction and economic development of Iran included in the memorandum, “though not funded by US taxpayers, would make Iran’s payoff under President Obama’s 2015 deal look like a pittance by comparison,” Wicker added in his statement.
He also said it would be an “error” to “force” Israel to stand down against Hezbollah, and added: “I also oppose the US lifting of any sanctions on Iran, or unfreezing Iranian funds, in exchange for Iran’s mere agreement to negotiate for another 60 days.”
He joins a handful of other Republican senators speaking out against Trump’s deal (see my earlier post). When asked about that criticism earlier, Vance said those Republicans should “have a little bit of faith in the president of the United States”.
“The idea that he is going to strike a deal that’s bad for the American people, it’s preposterous” he said.
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Updated at 14.30 EDT
Back to Donald Trump for a second (sorry), the president has reiterated that the ​United States expects “a ⁠complete ceasefire on all fronts, including ⁠Lebanon, Hezbollah, ​and Israel.”
“We ‌encourage everyone ‌in the ‌Middle East Region to maintain their commitment to allowing our negotiations ‌to beautifully unfold,” Trump wrote ​on Truth Social.
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The Associated Press reports that Michelle Obama spoke directly to her husband when she stepped up to the podium.
“Eight years in the crucible and not once did you melt in the heat. Not once did you let it harden you. Instead, you used it to reveal your truest essence,” she said. “Your stubborn optimism and unflinching courage. Your dazzling brilliance and unpretentious decency. Your ferocious work ethic and absolutely unshakable moral fiber. And to do it all as a first.”
She ticked off highlights from her husband’s eight years in office, including ordering the raid that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden, “standing up for marriage equality” and “listening to science.”
“And you did it all with such grace and class and cool,” she said. “You made the hardest job in the world look like a walk in this beautiful park.”
Obama appeared to wipe away a tear as she praised him, the AP reported.
Michelle Obama also referenced the current “anxious and divisive times” and warned against being cynical or complacent as “everything feels so upside down.” She pitched the center as “a respite from all that.”
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It’s not every day that this many celebrities gather together (in a way that benefits this blog, at least). So here are even more photos of the scene in Chicago at the Obama Presidential Center:
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Updated at 13.53 EDT
It appears that president Donald Trump didn’t make it to the event at the Obama Presidential Center. It’s unclear whether he was invited.
Either way: Trump’s absence is not exactly surprising.
The latest conflict between them came when a UFC fighter said disparaging comments about the former first lady at the White House and Trump did nothing about it.
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Updated at 13.52 EDT
David Smith
For the Obama Presidential Center on the South Side of Chicago, Barack and Michelle Obama commissioned original works by 30 artists from diverse backgrounds, a bold move never seen at such scale at a presidential library. It also forms a quiet rebuke of Obama’s successor, who has filled the Oval Office with stiff presidential portraits while plotting the demise of cultural stalwarts such as the Kennedy Center and Smithsonian Institution.
“They love art,” said Valerie Jarrett, chief executive of the Obama Foundation, reflecting on how the Obamas took a similarly inclusive approach to curating the White House. “We want people who come here to look at a piece of art, stand next to a stranger, have a conversation about that piece of art and how it touches them each in their own individual ways.”
The privately funded $850m presidential centre, opening nearly a decade after Obama left office, sits on a 19-acre campus in Chicago’s Jackson Park, close to where he lived as a young man and entered politics. It includes a new branch of the Chicago Public Library, an NBA-regulation basketball court, a recording studio and a sledding hill built because a young Michelle Obama never had one growing up on the city’s famously flat South Side.
The new artworks are dotted throughout. Jarrett insisted: “None of the art makes political statements.” But that depends on the definition of “political”. It does engage with the roots of African American history, the struggle for civil rights and the specific cultural legacy of Chicago.
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Here are some more photos from the dedication ceremony of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago:
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Dedication ceremony for Obama Presidential Center under way in Chicago
Meanwhile, in Chicago, thousands ⁠of invited guests, led by former presidents and heads of state, converged on a lakefront park to dedicate the Obama Presidential Center, a sprawling campus of granite, nature and art designed as a hub of civic life and culture honoring the 44th president of the United States, Reuters reported.
Former president Barack ⁠Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama were ⁠joined at the event by the other ​three living former presidents — former presidents Bill Clinton, George W Bush and Joe Biden — and their wives, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush and Jill Biden.
Obama’s two daughters, Malia and Sasha, sat with their parents on the main stage of the ceremony.
Reuters reports that the roster ⁠of VIPs in attendance also included former vice-president Kamala Harris and her spouse, Douglas Emhoff, former US House speaker Nancy Pelosi and such foreign dignitaries as former German chancellor Angela Merkel and former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau.
The occasion, under partly cloudy skies, marked the ceremonial opening of the Obama Center, an $850 million development that local historians say ⁠marks the greatest single investment in a century in Chicago’s long-neglected South Side.
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‘I might not attack the only powerful ally I have left,’ Vance says in excoriating rebuke of Israeli critics of US-Iran deal
And finally, asked about reports that Benjamin Netanyahu is fuming over the deal with Iran, Vance issues an extraordinary rebuke to Israeli critics, particularly members of Netanyahu’s cabinet who have lambasted the deal and Trump. He says:
double quotation markDonald J Trump is the only ‌head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time.
If I was in the Israeli cabinet, I might not be attacking the only powerful ⁠ally that I have anywhere left in the entire ⁠world.
He adds that over the last three months of war, two-thirds of the weapons used to defend Israel were produced in the US.
double quotation markThe problem for Israel is not Donald ⁠J Trump and anybody in Israel ​who ​thinks their biggest ​problem is the President ​of the United ‌States needs ​to ​wake up and smell the reality of the situation that country is in.
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Updated at 12.54 EDT
Vance says he is planning to lead the US negotiating team as they try to reach the final agreement with Iran.
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Updated at 12.38 EDT
Asked if he’s still going to Switzerland tomorrow for the formal signing ceremony, Vance says: “I may, it just depends exactly on when the Iranians can get there.”
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Vance says he plans to go to Switzerland for talks with Iran this weekend, but that the plan could change.
“We think these technical negotiations are going to start sometime this weekend. That’s still the plan, but that could change,” he says. “I suspect this weekend but I’m not sure.”
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Politicians always speak at team victory rallies after the city wins a championship, but often in broad tones. They only talk about the star players, give kudos to the owner, and generally don’t show a lot of understanding when it comes to the team itself, the history, or the significance of the moment.
New York City mayor Zohan Mamdani flipped the script on Thursday when he stepped to the mic at the Knicks victory rally and delivered one of the most incredible, insightful, and inspiring speeches that a public official has delivered about a team. You don’t need to agree with his politics, or even like him as a person to appreciate that this is a guy who really knows the team he’s talking about.
The first part of the speech was focused on the city. How the pain, and anticipation became part of the fabric of the city. Mamdani highlighted the fans watching games on the street through the windows of electronic shops, at the bar, alone in their apartments, or shoulder-to-shoulder at the bar. It’s here he shouted out not just Knicks legends, but iconic moments and superfans. It was a heck of a way to kick things off.
As amazing as this way was, the second was almost better. Showing an unreal understanding of team building, Mamdani gave shout-outs to a lot of the players who are no longer with the team, but who helped build the culture of the 2025-26 Knicks to become champions — and even gave credit to Tom Thibodeau for his guidance before turning the team over.
This will truly rank among the great sports speeches of all time. Not just by a politician at a victory rally, but ever. It was pretty much perfect.

Just after midnight in Tehran earlier this week, a motorcade speeding to the airport came to a sudden stop. Qatari officials emerged from their cars and huddled on the side of the road. Yet another last-minute crisis had come up in the marathon Iran talks, and the Qataris had clear instructions from their leadership not to leave without an announced deal.
In Washington, President Trump was getting ready for a birthday dinner. International mediators believed the birthday — and the U.F.C. cage match scheduled for Sunday night — could put Mr. Trump in the mood to sign the agreement on that day.
In Israel, officials were already grappling with a humiliating setback, in what appeared to be their closest ally’s imminent separate agreement with Israel’s archenemy. The deal appeared on track despite Israel’s decision to attack a Beirut suburb that day without consulting with the United States.
But on the Tehran roadside, the Qataris were dealing with disagreements about the phrasing of the announcement. Finally, after more calls, the Qataris got back in their cars and headed for the airport. Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, announced the deal at 12:45 a.m. Monday in Tehran and Mr. Trump confirmed it minutes later, revealing a good-will gesture to the Iranians: the United States would lift its naval blockade of Iranian ports immediately.
Last weekend, four months of war and 47 years of confrontation between the United States and Iran came to a head in an extraordinary diplomatic rush that repeatedly threatened to spiral into more bloodshed. Negotiators were wrangling over issues with wide significance for the world economy, Mideast geopolitics and U.S. domestic politics.
Mr. Trump sought a deal he could sell as making good on his promise to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon, even though the establishment of specific protections was being kicked to a later negotiation. Iran was determined to avoid giving up what it says is its right to enrich uranium, while maximizing what it could extract in exchange for reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
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