Meet the Burnham brothers - Andy's beloved siblings who keep him grounded

When Andy Burnham was once criticised on social media for publicly praising the achievements of one of his two brothers, his response was robust. Directly addressing his online heckler, Britain’s next exepcted prime minister wrote: “Sod off you nob.”

The now former Manchester mayor has made much of his unabashed sense of attachment to family and belonging to the North West – a sentiment underlined this week by briefings from allies that he will keep his family home near Wigan as he seeks to shift power away from the capital and only use No 10 when working in London.

Burnham’s apparent plan to return home at least one or two days a week underlines the importance he attaches to what he has described as his “support system”, a safety net of loved ones and confidants. His younger brother, John, and older brother, Nick, are key parts of that Team Burnham network.

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Researchers said that people with strong pecs, back muscles and torso are also less likely to die within the next decade.

Experts from the British Heart Foundation (BHF) said that it is “not just about being muscly”, as the size of people’s muscles was not linked to their risk of a heart attack or early death.

It said that all kinds of exercise, and not just strength training, can improve muscle density.

It is fascinating that people’s skeletal muscle could be linked to their risk of having a heart attack. I am now personally interested in exercises like cycling, planks and pilates, which I enjoy and may have an effect on these muscles.

What are the things that you do to keep yourself healthy? Your mind might jump straight to the run you do a couple of times a week, or the choices you make about what to eat, the amount of sleep you manage to get each night or the friends who make you feel seen and heard. And you’d be right. These are all things that keep us healthy.

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The price cap, set by the regulator Ofcom, is set to rise, affecting 5.3 million households on a standard tariff.

How much the price cap will increase from Wednesday, 1 July.

The average gas and electricity bill will jump to £1,862 a year.

There are currently 27 fixed deals available that are cheaper than July’s price cap, with average savings of £285, so act now to save yourself money.  The price cap is going up, but your bills don’t have to.

People are future-proofing their homes for sustainability and to protect themselves against unpredictable energy costs

The summer’s first full Moon is lighting up skies across the country this week.

To see the Stawberry Moon, look towards the south-east after sunset. That will be after around 9.20pm on Tuesday, 30 June. The moon will track southwards through the night, setting in the south-west before sunrise on Wednesday.

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Some forecasts suggest temperatures could begin to climb again as we enter July. Here is everything you need to know about another upcoming heatwave.

Although a return to heatwave conditions is looking increasingly likely for some areas,  the likelihood of such extreme high temperatures or high levels of humidity as last week is currently low.

The UK just experienced it’s hottest June day on record with temperatures topping 36°C in some parts of the country. And while Britain has experienced hotter weather before, like the heatwave in July 2022, something about this one has felt particularly grim-humidity. But why does this make a difference? You can read Clare Wilson’s full article on The i Paper’s website. #heatwave #ukheatwave

The three siblings have remained close ever since a childhood of verbal and physical knockabout, forged playing football in the back garden of their home in the quiet Cheshire commuter village of Culcheth. Neighbours recall the brothers regularly knocking the door to retrieve balls accidentally kicked over the fence.

In a 2015 interview, their mother, Eileen, a former GP’s receptionist, said: “The boys were always close, but they still knocked seven bells out of each other every day. Andy dished it out most. But then he’d just stop and go do his homework. He was driven.”

Burnham, 56, has previously nodded to the importance of his upbringing in a “normal, skilled working-class household” in shaping his world view and politics.

The three sons, whose father Roy worked as a telecoms engineer and were raised as Roman Catholics, were the first members of their family to attend university. In a rare interview, Nick, an economics graduate who is two years older than Andy, said: “It was a fantastic upbringing. A loving home. Fun. Incredible amount of taking the mickey, and a brilliant, brilliant childhood.”

Andy, who stands on the cusp of being the next Labour leader within three weeks, has generally sought to keep his family, in particular his wife, Marie-France van Heel, and their three children, out of the spotlight.

But he has also on occasion nodded towards the importance of his brothers in his life and his sense of pride at the achievements of his siblings, both of whom are successful headteachers at schools in the North West. When asked a decade ago while shadow home secretary whether he would consider leaving Manchester for London, he said: “Nope. Because my networks are here, my mum and dad, my brothers… my support system.”

It is a two-way street. When in 2020 John, who is four years younger than the newly-anointed MP for Makerfield, moved on from his role at Birchwood Community High School in Warrington, Andy wrote on X: “Don’t normally tweet about my family. But my brother has today left [Birchwood school] after 20 years service. He’s made a massive difference to the kids in that community. Well done John – we’re so proud of you.”

The tribute also sparked a display of the former health secretary’s unapologetic stance when it comes to defending his nearest and dearest. When an X user suggested Burnham’s tweet was a “spin to get votes”, the then Manchester mayor responded in stark Anglo-Saxon.

Nick, in his own words, has described Andy as “loyal”. In a video marking his bid to be Labour leader in 2015, he said: “You can depend on him whenever you want. To be honest with you, you couldn’t wish for a better brother.”

Indeed, Burnham has made it clear that had life taken him on a different path – he has previously described how his entry into politics only came about because of a chance introduction to Labour MP Tessa Jowell via a colleague while he was working as a trade magazine journalist – it would probably have been down the same route as his brothers.

John has been credited with helping to turn around his current school in Ormskirk, where he has been headteacher since 2022. The secondary school was rated as “inadequate” by Ofsted in 2019 and shut down. Under John’s leadership, it last year received a “good” rating across all categories. Nick has been the principal of the highly-rated Cardinal Newman College, a sixth-form college in Preston, since 2012.

When once asked what he would do if he was not a politician, Andy replied: “Probably most likely a teacher. Both of my brothers are teachers and I guess that’s where I would want to be, where I feel I’d make a difference.”

It is clear that Burnham has relied on his brothers, as well as other family members, to help provide the connection with the stresses and strains of ordinary life that he has made a key pillar of his political identity.

He has previously described how John, like his two siblings a life-long Everton FC fan, had visited him in the 1990s while he was studying English at Cambridge University – an institution where a young Andy had expressed fears about fitting in before later acknowledging he had enjoyed his time.

Burnham had been dabbling a little in student politics, demonstrating against newly-arrived student loans but his younger brother reminded him that back home his peers were significantly worse off by being unable get their tuition fees paid for night school courses.

The man who will almost certainly soon by leading the nation said: “It brought home to me how you have to root your politics in the real world.”