The first England game of the World Cup kicks off at 9pm on Wednesday – prime door-knocking time on the eve of Makerfield’s knife-edge by-election.
In the most consequential by-election in modern history, candidates might be tempted to wring the night for every last vote.
But Andy Burnham, 56, has already called off the troops.
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Being a grandparent
is complicated
Celia Dodd, who looks after her grandchildren two days a week, says
there’s a fine line between being supportive and interfering.
Here she shares the things she’d never say or do with her own family.
What grandparents should never do
Ignore parents rules
It’s important to know what’s expected rather than second-guessing what the parents want, and possibly getting it wrong.
(Photo: Getty)
Caption: Parents and young child moving into a new house, unpacking belongings from cardboard boxes
Photographer: Vladimir Vladimirov
Provider: Getty Images
Source: E+
Send endless snaps
Friends understandably get irritated if you keep sending photos and long videos, especially if they’re longing for grandchildren of their own.
I’ve made it very clear to my own daughter that if she needs full time childcare, she’s going to have to sort that out herself (Photo: PeopleImages/ Getty)
What not to say
I wouldn’t do it like that…
The golden rule for grandparents – don’t offer advice unless it’s asked for, and never interfere – is almost impossible to get right.
You might feel like – how can you not interfere when you’re doing your best to support the family? It’s a fine line, and there are times when you’re bound to get it wrong.
What grandparents should never do
Grandchild, twilight parenting, grandparents, grandmother, baby, exhausted, tired – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
Assume involvement
Although it’s a shock, it’s simply not on to drop in whenever you feel like it.
Beat yourself up
Being a grandparent is never 100 per cent bliss, despite what people say. Childcare can be boring as well as fulfilling.
(Photo: Paul Bradbury/Getty).
Naps before 1pm can lead to better cognitive performance in the following hours (Photo: Lord Henri Voton/Getty Images)
Admit tiredness
I don’t want them to stop asking me to babysit, and I certainly don’t want them suggesting I’m doing too much.
What grandparents should never do
Forget the years fly
Grandparents have to keep finding new ways to keep the connection close, by tapping into what your grandchild loves doing.
Conflict of family two generations old mother and adult daughter – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
Grandparents and their young grandchildren relaxing at home – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
Dismiss the parents
Even if you don’t agree with the way things are done – like using gentle parenting –
it’s a big help to understand why they are doing it rather than just dismiss them.
The price, size and variety of eggs differ
But which is the best value
for money and taste?
Food Editor Sophie Morris
tested 15 supermarket packs, scrambled and fried.
Her findings? The most expensive wasn’t the best.
Supermarket eggs taste test
M&S Golden Yolk Eggs
These shells win the beauty contest and the yolk colour is amazing when scrambled. 4/5
Taste the Difference
These Sainsbury’s eggs taste as good as they look with gorgeous orange middles and a rich flavour. 4/5
St Ewe Rich Yolk Eggs
These are “higher welfare” free-range eggs but the yolks taste no better than other high-end eggs, says Morris. 4/5
Supermarket eggs taste test
Aldi Golden Yolk Eggs
Winner! The Specially Selected eggs are a great price with a delicious yolk. 4/5
Savers Small Eggs
Morrisons Savers eggs are great for the price (£1.10) but not rich in flavour. 3/5
Burford Brown Eggs
They taste great, but not noticeably better than the other high-end eggs. The spend is more to do with branding. 4/5
Supermarket eggs taste test
- 7Tesco Finest Bluebell Aruacana
The pale blue shells won me over but the insides are just as rewarding with a rich flavour.
4/5 - 8Waitrose Duchy Organic Eggs
Their sunny yellow middle scrambles beautifully into light, fluffy folds.
4/5 - 9Lidl Deluxe Golden Yolk Eggs
They’re a great deal and the yolk is a lovely bright orange and the taste is rich and eggy.
3.5/5
Supermarket eggs taste test
M&S British Free Range Eggs
Large eggs with brown shells and a light orange yolk and they’re a great price for high-welfare large eggs. 4/5
Ocado Large Free Range Eggs
These are the best value large eggs that I try. The yolks are a dark yellow and the eggs turn out a lovely rich and fluffy scramble. 4/5
Supermarket eggs taste test
Packington British Free Range Eggs
Pretty white eggs with a yellow yolk that taste fine but, given the price, I expected a little more. 3.5/5
Supermarket eggs taste test
Waitrose No.1 Longstock Gold Eggs
They are delicious: meltingly rich, they scramble into fat folds. They have beautiful green shells, almost too pretty to eat. 4/5
Caption: Eggs are seen in a carton on Monday, April 13, 2026, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)
Photographer: Jenny Kane
Provider: AP
Source: AP
Caption: A detail of cracked egg falling into the pan as woman holds egg shells in both hands.
Photographer: SimpleImages
Provider: Getty Images
Source: Moment RF
Asda Organic Mixed Size Eggs
The yolk is a pale yellow and when scrambled the result is an unappealing yellowish grey colour. These are the most bland-tasting of the lot. 2/5
Food inflation could reach as much as 10 per cent by the end of 2026
Why you should stockpile
The modern food system is incredibly efficient – but that efficiency depends on a constant flow and just-in-time delivery. Stockpiling, at its best, isn’t panic buying. It’s creating a small buffer between us and a system that was never designed to pause.
Séamus Higgins, author of Food and Us: The incredible story of how food shapes humanity
Supermarkets will find ways of holding down the price of the basics, and try to make their money on the fancy lines (Photo: Roy James Shakespeare/Getty)
What you should consider buying
Tap water is generally safe to drink in Europe (Photo: Klaus Vedfelt/Getty)
Bottled water
While we are accustomed to free-flowing water, in recent years, supply has failed for a number of days in many areas of the UK.
Canned essentials
Morris keeps tomatoes, beans, pulses, chickpeas, lentils and fish in her cupboard.
Chickpeas are a great source of protein (Photo: Christian Mouysset)
Many of us like to add milk to our tea, so you may be wondering whether that affects its benefits (Photo: Maca and Naca/Getty)
Tea and coffee
As prices vary, and are increasing, it’s good to bulk buy if you can.
What you should stockpile
Dried goods
A base of dry goods, like rice, pasta, oats and flour, are the backbone of a reliable pantry. Make sure bags are stored correctly and replace them when they go out of date.
Caption: Asian girl grocery shopping in supermarket. She is choosing fresh fruit juice along the beverage aisle, reading the nutrition label and checking ingredients on the bottle. Making a healthier food choice and balanced diet. Healthy eating lifestyle
Photographer: d3sign
Provider: Getty Images
Source: Moment RF
Caption: Close up of a woman preparing a wholesome breakfast by pouring oats into a bowl from a plastic free jar with fresh berries.
Photographer: Dougal Waters
Provider: Getty Images
Source: Digital Vision
Copyright: Dougal Waters Photography Ltd
UHT drinks
UHT dairy, squash and long life milks and juices are worth keeping for emergencies.
What you should stockpile
A well-stocked freezer is also important, but it doesn’t need to be a huge space.
Focus on versatility and rotation in fruit, veg, fish and bread, and buy what you’ll use.
Caption: Close-up of peanut butter on toasted bread on light gray plate. Food background.
Photographer: Yuliia Zaitseva
Provider: Getty Images/iStockphoto
Source: iStockphoto
- Peanut butter, or a jarred treat like jam or Nutella, is also a good idea.
- Nut butters are a great source of protein, fibre, has a long shelf life and can be used on savoury and sweet foods.
Want to slow down brain ageing? Try a hobby
The hobbies that slow brain ageing
Practise a musical instrument
A study of 108 amateur musicians in the journal Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences found those with more musical experience had better attention control.
Caucasian mid adult patient writing a diary while recovering in the hospital ward – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
Caption: IVANO-FRANKIVSK, UKRAINE – NOVEMBER 13, 2022 – Musicians of the NAONI Orchestra (National Academic Orchestra of Folk Instruments of Ukraine) hold a concert at the Ivan Franko Academic Regional Ukrainian Music and Drama Theatre in Ivano-Frankivsk, western Ukraine. (Photo credit should read Yurii Rylchuk / Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
Photographer: Future Publishing
Provider: Future Publishing via Getty Imag
Source: Future Publishing
Journal in the evening before bed
Reflecting on your day supports your memory as you’re rehearsing the things you’ve done, especially if you do it with pen and paper, says Prof Catherine Loveday, author of The Secret World of the Brain.
The hobbies that slow brain ageing
The flowering gardens at Cawdor Castle (Photo: Dennis Barnes/Getty/Stockbyte Unreleased)
Garden for 20 minutes
Connecting with nature replenishes cognitive resources and boosts vitamin D levels, says Loveday.
Join a knitting group
Knitting improves coordination and working memory – your brain’s ability to store and use information according to the British Journal of Occupational Therapy.
Senior female friends spending leisure time knitting while sitting at table in retirement home – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
As society sees the largest ever intergenerational shift of assets, younger clients will need people they can relate to, instead of relying on AI and social media for financial advice (Photo: Getty)
Learn a language
Learning a second language helps improve our ability to retrieve words.
The hobbies that slow
brain ageing
- Games, like Minecraft, helps improve spatial representation, speed and reaction times.
- Reading fiction twice a week stimulates the language parts
of the brain, says Loveday. - One study also found that chess players had better cognitive reflection and greater focus.
LIFESTYLE
5 min read
Why crossing your legs could be bad your health…
It’s one of those every day moves that we rarely think twice about – especially when sitting for longer periods – but it could be inadvertently contributing to your back pain, high blood pressure or even issues like infertility.
Why you shouldn’t cross your legs
The fact it’s comfortable doesn’t mean it’s good for us
62%
of people prefer to cross their right over their left leg.
While 26 per cent cross their left over the right and 12 per cent have no preference.
S shape
The natural shape of the spine when stood up is an S-shaped curve.
But when we sit in a chair with our feet flat on the ground our pelvis is rocked backwards creating a C shape.
In some people, blood pressure stays high despite medication, and hormones may be the reason (Photo: Tatiana Maksimova/Getty Images/Moment RF)
How does it impact blood pressure?
We’re restricting venous return of blood from peripheral tissues like the foot going back to the heart.
Says Adam Taylor, Professor and Director of the Clinical Anatomy Learning Centre, at Lancaster University.
Although your blood pressure should drop once you move from the position, it can have longer term impacts if you have pre-existing conditions like diabetes.
How it can impact the nervous system
In extreme it can
lead to a phenomenon
called foot drop.
Senior woman on sofa feeling and suffering from back pain. – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
Over the short term crossing can give you pins and needles. If you leave it there for half an hour, an hour, or longer, you can actually interfere with the muscular function of the muscles, says Taylor.
LIFESTYLE
5 min read
How it impacts posture
(Photo: Justin Paget/ Getty).
Sam Bhide, advanced physiotherapy practitioner, believes the main impact of sitting cross-legged is gluteal tendonitis, resulting in moderate to severe hip pain.
One study found that sitting cross-legged leads to a bent and asymmetrical posture and other research shows it increasing the misalignment of the hips.
How it impacts fertility
We know that crossing your legs warms up the groin area by somewhere in the remit of three degrees. If you are a man who sits with your legs crossed for a prolonged period of time, that is not good for sperm production.
ADAM TAYLOR, PROFESSOR AND DIRECTOR OF THE CLINICAL ANATOMY LEARNING CENTRE
(Photo: Andrew Matthews/PA).
How to fix it
Caption: Incorrect seated posture.
Photographer: Science Photo Library
Provider: Getty Images/Science Photo Libra
Source: Science Photo Library RF
Get out of the habit
If crossing our legs is the cause, then the obvious solution is to do it less.
Microbreaks
Take time off from sitting, and put your musculoskeletal system through a normal range of motion.
There are many ways to improve your finances this Easter (Amr Bo Shanab/Getty Images/fStop)
(Photo: Justin Paget/Getty).
Focus on symmetry
If you’re a right over left leg crosser, try crossing the other way, so those forces are at least going through the body equally.
The foods the experts always have in the cupboard
Foods to keep in the cupboard
Caption: John West tuna chunks in brine, ??1.50/125g
Copyright: John West
Tinned fish
These are a great way to get Omega-3 fats and fish with soft bones are a great source of calcium, says dietician Emma Shafqat.
Ready whole grains
Dietitian Lucy Upton recommends brown rice, quinoa and barley which are low in salt.
Rice cooked – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
Photographer: HakanEliacik / 500px
Provider: Getty Images/500px Prime
Source: 500px Prime
Copyright: Hakan Eliacik – 05062142485
Olive oil
Cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil has polyphenols and antioxidants, says Dr Frankie Phillips.
Foods to keep in the cupboard
Nuts and seeds
They boast unsaturated fats, fibre, plant protein, vitamins and minerals. Raw or dry roasted should have no additives, like salt. Dr Shafqat recommends brands like Meridian, Pip & Nut and Whole Earth.
Dried fruit
(Photo: Wirestock/Getty/iStockphoto/Juergen Wiesler)
Dried fruit
If you’re mindful of the addd sugar, they can be great for fibre as part of a meal. Dr Phillips recommends dried apricots as they’re verstaile and add iron to the diet.
Dark chocolate
It surprises many people that dark chocolate contains fibre.
It counts as a health food thanks to its high polyphenol count.
To really optimise the health benefits, choose chocolate that is 70 per cent cocoa as it has fewer ingredients and a higher polyphenol content.
Lindt 70 to 85 per cent, Green & Black’s, Divine Fairtrade, Aldi’s Moser Roth (70 per cent) and Lidl’s own brand (85 per cent) are great, accessible options.
Foods to keep in the cupboard
Oats
Plain oats are a cheap, accessible and nutritious food that provide beta-glucan, a type of soluble fibre which helps to manage cholesterol levels.
Packing out your curry with pulses (Photo: Michelle Garrett/Getty)
Caption: Close up of a woman preparing a wholesome breakfast by pouring oats into a bowl from a plastic free jar with fresh berries.
Photographer: Dougal Waters
Provider: Getty Images
Source: Digital Vision
Copyright: Dougal Waters Photography Ltd
Pulses
Dr Phillips keeps canned cannellini beans, kidney beans, chickpeas and red lentils in the cupboard, and adds them to soups, stews and savoury mince dishes.
The UK’s mild climate may be destroyed
While much of the world is set to grow hotter as a result of the climate crisis, the UK could soon face a different fate.
Climate scientists fear a ‘cold blob’ in the Atlantic Ocean may bring Arctic conditions instead of a tropical future.
Bill McGuire, a professor of geophysical and climate hazards at University College London (UCL), is one of them.
Here he shares why cold temperatures could be our reality in a few decades.
Why this could happen
At the moment, global heating is making the UK hotter. This warmth is thanks to the presence of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), a system of currents over the Atlantic.
- Without these currents, our climate would be more akin to the much colder weather in north-eastern Canada.
- And the AMOC might be set to U-turn.
- One study suggests that the AMOC has weakened by 15 per cent since the mid-20th century.
- There is not much we can do to stop
this decline. Emissions would need to
be cut in half within five years to have
any chance of dodging a permanent global temperature change.
How to prepare for a change
“All countries need to ensure that infrastructure, food security, services
and public engagement are robust,”
says Professor McGuire.
Caption: Snow falls over in Middleton-in-Teesdale, County Durham. Storm Chandra brought travel disruption and flooding as strong winds and heavy rain hit much of the UK. Picture date: Tuesday January 27, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Owen Humphreys/PA Wire
Photographer: Owen Humphreys
Provider: Owen Humphreys/PA Wire
Source: PA
Copyright: PA Wire
A train arrives into the station in the town of Glossop in the snowy weather last week. New rail projects planned for the North of England are ‘really exciting,’ the Transport Secretary has said (Photo: Oli SCARFF / AFP via Getty Images)
One paper estimated that only seven per cent of UK land would be suitable for
arable farming in the new climate,
compared with the current 32 per cent. “Managing this looks like rationing and restricted civil liberties,” he claims.
The global impact
Smoke billows from a fire in an area of the Amazon rainforest near Porto Velho, Rondonia State, Brazil (Photo: Bruno Kelly/Reuters)
- It could cause the weakening of the African and Asian monsoons, resulting in famine.
- Increased warming of the southern hemisphere could further dry out the Amazon.
- Increase melting across Antarctica would accelerate sea level rise.
LIFESTYLE
5 min read
What we need to do
This is entirely the result of global heating caused by human activities. It is critical that monitoring of the AMOC is maintained, even increased. European governments really need to be planning for a future that could well be
much colder.AUTHOR OF THE FATE OF THE WORLD: HOW OUR FUTURE IS WRITTEN IN THE PAST
Snow covering Arlington Row in the Cotswolds village of Bibury. – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
Our shared ownership home is a disaster
Paul Afshar is struggling to sell his shared ownership flat in Hackney Wick (Photo: Charlie Forgham-Bailey)
Paul Afshar felt a sense of pride when
he purchased 25 per cent of a new home in East London – as a way to get on the property ladder without huge financial backing.
But years on, Afshar has discovered the drawbacks of the scheme, including the rising costs and difficulty moving on.
The background
A 25 per cent of a one-bedroom flat in London.
- In 2007 Afshar put a five per cent deposit (£2,500) on his share of the flat and entered a 35-year mortgage on a standard variable rate.
- Although he only owns a quarter of his flat in Hackney but is eligible for 100 per cent of the maintenance costs.
- Between 2007 and 2024 his mortgage rose 48 per cent from £268.65 to £400.28. He also pays £865.48 on rent (shared ownership requires paying rent to the organisation who owns the rest) and a service charge.
- Fixing unsafe cladding on his block of will also cost in excess
of £50,000, as it isn’t eligible for government funding.
The impact on residents
It has definitely triggered a deep sense of anxiety in me that affected my mental health. It’s this constant heavy, nervous feeling in my stomach.
AFSHAR, 41
Caption: Paul Afshar, campaigner for End Our Cladding Scandal (EOCS). who???s flat in Hackney Wick has been affected by unsafe cladding which means that he is unable to sell the property.
Photographed leaving his flat.
Photographer: Charlie Forgham-Bailey
Provider: Charlie Forgham-Bailey
Source: Charlie Forgham-Bailey
Shared ownership in the UK
Caption: BRENTFORD, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 19: A general view of some of the student accommodation blocks within the Paragon Residential development which have been placed on a mandatory evacuation order, on October 19, 2020 in Brentford, England. Paragon is a development of six apartment blocks owned by one of London’s largest housing associations, Notting Hill Genesis. A recent investigation into the exterior cladding coupled with structural and fire safety issues has led to the association asking residents of the 1059 flats to evacuate while further investigations are made. The estate was developed by Berkeley First, part of The Berkeley Group plc. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)
Myra Butterworth
Photographer: Leon Neal
Provider: Getty Images
Source: Getty Images Europe
Copyright: GETTY IMAGES
- In 2024, 200,000 households were shared ownership properties.
- In 2021-22 there were 19,386 new shared ownership properties.
- Fewer than 2,000 shared ownership households managed to staircase from part to full ownership in 2022.
Big Read
9 min read
Selling up
Afshar couldn’t sell his flat but didn’t feel safe to live in it – because of the cladding. So he lived with his partner for three years, still paying the mortgage and charges.
Caption: Paul Afshar, campaigner for End Our Cladding Scandal (EOCS). who???s flat in Hackney Wick has been affected by unsafe cladding which means that he is unable to sell the property.
General view of the unsafe timber cladding.
Photographer: Charlie Forgham-Bailey
Provider: Charlie Forgham-Bailey
Source: Charlie Forgham-Bailey
Caption: Paul Afshar, campaigner for End Our Cladding Scandal (EOCS). who???s flat in Hackney Wick has been affected by unsafe cladding which means that he is unable to sell the property.
Photographed inside his flat.
Photographer: Charlie Forgham-Bailey
Provider: Charlie Forgham-Bailey
Source: Charlie Forgham-Bailey
Property expert Crystal Olenbush says selling is the biggest issue. “You’ve got to figure out how to divvy any equity, then you need to find someone to take over the side of the seller’s portion of the mortgage. There’s a whole legal process to transfer that shared ownership stake. If anyone tries to skip steps, it creates huge problems.”
Paul Afshar is struggling to sell his shared ownership flat in Hackney Wick
(Photo: Charlie Forgham-Bailey)
The takeaway
I got into something I didn’t fully understand. I was sold a dream of homeownership and it’s come back to bite me years later. It’s heartbreaking.
Looking back Afshar wishes he’d have looked into the service charge, mortgage rate and selling protocols sooner.
There will be no canvassing during the England versus Croatia match – just as there was none when Wigan reached the Challenge Cup final a fortnight ago.
“I issued an edict in this room, this very room, that there was to be no door knocking at all,” he says in an interview at a community club in Stubshaw Cross on Saturday.
By his own reckoning, Makerfield’s 77,000 voters are by-election weary and faintly sick of the sight of him. Lift the lid of any recycling bin in the constituency, he jokes, and his own face will be grinning up from the top of a pile of leaflets. He thanks the voters, more than once, for their patience. The least he can do, he reckons, is leave them to the football.
For this is a man who, as Mayor of Greater Manchester, took the buses back into public control, capped the fares at £2 and gave every teenager a free bus pass – a politics, his allies say, is built on knowing precisely what a place needs.
It is a knack that has earned him his title as the so-called King of the North and a rare personal following – an appeal he now hopes will translate if he succeeds in his audacious bid to return to Westminster.
Burnham, who has the tan of four weeks spent on doorsteps, is getting over a cold when we meet at one of his campaign centres in the constituency he soon hopes to represent as an MP.
Burnham will bring campaigning to a close on Wednesday night so voters can enjoy England’s World Cup opener (Photo: Anthony Devlin/Getty)
On the day we meet, he has harnessed the help of an estimated 1,000 volunteers – including MPs and peers. Louise Haigh, the former transport secretary, and her dog Milo, a golden lurcher–whippet cross, is directing operations.
Following the resignation of John Healey as defence secretary, who quit over the Prime Minister’s refusal to provide more money for defence – Sir Keir Starmer is once again fighting for survival, with more than 100 Labour MPs already saying he should go.
It’s just the latest chapter in the psychodrama, which began to unfold in the wake of last month’s disastrous local election results and has turned this by-election into Burnham’s audition for No 10.
‘HS2 can be funded like Crossrail’
Burnham lives in nearby Golborne with his wife, Marie-France van Heel, with whom he has three children. Aintree-born and Cambridge-educated, he served as health secretary under Gordon Brown and twice ran for the Labour leadership, losing in 2010 and 2015 before quitting Parliament in 2016 for the fledgling Greater Manchester mayoralty. Widely seen as a consolation prize at the time, the job has become the power base now propelling him towards Downing Street.
Pressed on what he would actually do with the keys to No 10, Burnham sets out a prospectus that is unmistakably in the Manchester mould.
He wants to bring back the northern leg of HS2. The scrapping of the Birmingham to Manchester route still rankles, and he is blunt that it should be revived.
“I am absolutely clear, I’ve seen it myself in terms of expansion of our travel system,” he says. “If you put that infrastructure in, it lays the foundations for higher growth… The lack of high-quality rail infrastructure in the north of England holds back its growth potential.”
What lifts this above a pipe dream, given the eye-watering sums involved – the Manchester leg was due to cost £36bn at the time it was cancelled – is how he says it should be paid for. It’s an idea he claims would spare the Treasury much of the bill and he has done it before, at scale.
“There’s a cleverer way of funding this,” he says. “If you go back, I put the funding package together for Crossrail and it was actually a package that did have contributions from business and residents.”
The trick missed last time, he argues, was capturing the soaring value of land around new stations, as London later did on the Northern line extension to Battersea. “You don’t take all the windfall off the landholder, but you share the proceeds of that windfall, and the increase in land values created by the infrastructure is captured to pay back the cost of the infrastructure. So why shouldn’t we fund infrastructure in this country in that way?”
It is, he insists, the future. “A much more devolved approach to running this country. You cannot get growth in a top-down, silo-driven model of government,” he says.
For the uninitiated, Manchesterism is less an ideology than a method.
Greater Manchester’s ‘Bee Network’ has been touted by Burnham as a model to follow across the UK (Photo: Ian Forsyth/Getty)
Since becoming the region’s first mayor in 2017, Burnham has used the powers prised from Whitehall to do a handful of concrete, visible things, including bringing the buses back under public control – the first English city region to do so in four decades.
Under the yellow “Bee Network” banner, he has incorporated buses, trams and soon, trains into a single network.
The politics is unashamedly interventionist and rooted in place – the opposite, he says, of a remote and short-termist Westminster.
It has made him a rarity in British politics: a Labour figure whose personal brand outstrips his party’s, re-elected with thumping majorities while the national party flailed.
The wager he is now making is that what works for Greater Manchester can work for the rest of the country – and that this model is the answer to the delivery crisis that is engulfing Starmer.
On the cost of living, the £2 bus fare is his proof of concept. It “comes up on every doorstep,” he says.
Putting buses back under public control to “deliver more public benefit in the form of lower fares” has “changed life in a borough like this,” he claims.
He draws from this experience a wider mission: “similar reform of the big essentials that were sold off in the 1980s.”
Water is one of the issues that exercises him the most. He has previously said he wants to see Thames Water brought into public ownership. Customers “were asked to pay 23 per cent extra on their bills,” he says, “when the water company doubled its profits to £800m”.
His verdict on the industry is withering: “the shareholders never lose and the public never win.” He wants a “much more robust reform agenda for water, for energy,” and council house-building “on the scale of the post-war period”. He claims this will make homes “cheaper to rent but also to run.”
The pitch doubles as fiscal discipline. He argues that if you rein in the unregulated rents that inflate the housing benefit bill, you can then give the country “a grip on its costs”.
To those who say he is careless in his approach to the bond markets, he retorts that “the reverse is true”. He claims that his ten-year investment plan to “bring down the revenue budget” is precisely “something that the bond markets might appreciate”.
‘Young people aren’t hopeful about their futures’
His deepest preoccupation is the education system – and the near-million young people not in work or training.
Their plight, he argues, begins long before any Jobcentre. “The origins of the million young people not in education, employment and training… are to be found in the education system.” His charge is that it only serves the few and finds itself weighted towards “the obsession with the university route under all of the main political parties”.
He has long argued for an education system based on “parity between academic and technical”. Without that, he argues, the country has been “left with a situation where some young people get to the middle years of secondary school and they can’t see where school is taking them”.
He claims to have the evidence to prove it. “We do a survey of teenagers in Greater Manchester and year 10s across all of our 10 boroughs and you see some of them start to report a loss of engagement with school by year 10. It’s high when they come in year seven, but it drops right down by year 10.
“The most troubling thing is we ask the question: Do you have hope for the future? And in parts of this city region, and indeed parts of this borough…that number is way too low. They just cannot see what the opportunity is beyond school.”
His remedies are practical and already running in Greater Manchester. This includes the free bus pass for 16 to 18-year-olds he wants matched to “a guarantee of a work related opportunity at 16,” a “45-day work placement” and – a reform he announced on the day we met – using “full social value weighting” in public procurement so that every single state contract can be made to “require work placements for 16 to 18-year-olds or apprenticeships”.
He also wants to overhaul support for special educational needs, warning that children with additional needs “find their needs are not met and they drift away from the labour market” – a reform with obvious resonance in a constituency, and a country, where SEND provision is in crisis.
Burnham was dubbed ‘King of the North’ following his pushback against lockdown restrictions in the north-west during the Covid pandemic (Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty)
On immigration, he hardens the message while insisting on balance. What he hears on the doorstep, he says, is not hostility but a demand for order. “People aren’t anti-immigration, but they say we want control of it,” he says. “At the moment, there’s a sense that isn’t the case.”
He claims the Channel boat crossings must be “gripped” as he praises Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, for bringing the numbers down “year on year” but insists “there is more to be done”.
Burnham’s allies have previously suggested he would back Mahmood’s package of immigration and asylum reforms, despite criticism from parts of Labour. Allies were quoted as saying he would seek to “reframe” the debate rather than reverse the measures, which include increasing the standard route to indefinite leave to remain (ILR) from five years to 10 years.
Drawing on his Home Office years under Sir Tony Blair – including dealing with the Sangatte refugee processing centre near Calais and conversations with the former home secretary David Blunkett, Burnham calls for greater use of detention for those whose claims have no “basis,” to enable “a quicker decision and a quicker return”.
But he is at pains to add what he calls “balance in my thinking” and wants to see “greater use of safe routes”. “Because what you want to do is break the business model of the gangs”, he adds.
For all the talk of Downing Street, it is Makerfield itself that animates Burnham most. The constituency has “too often” been “a forgotten part of Britain,” he says, neglected on everything “from flooding to infrastructure.” It flooded in 2015 and again, seriously, in 2025, when residents had no warning. “You didn’t even have river gauges to warn the residents,” he says. “That tells you something really wrong about the accountability of agencies to people in places like this.”
Whatever Thursday brings, he insists, the change must outlast the “circus”. He claims the voters “deserve nothing less” and vows to deliver for them either as their new MP, or if defeated, by continuing in his role as the Mayor of Greater Manchester.
But if he is victorious, his promise to them is unambiguous. “I will be on a mission to make this the most powerful constituency in the land,” he says.
By 9pm on Wednesday, the last of the leaflets will have been delivered, the foot soldiers will have been stood down and the television will be on.
For one night, even the most relentless campaigner in Britain will sit still and watch the football – refusing, as he has all week, to call the score, England’s or his own.