British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has cancelled his scheduled engagements for today and tomorrow after the death of his father, Roy, who had been living with Alzheimer’s disease.
Mr Burnham has previously spoken publicly about his father’s condition, explaining that the illness meant Roy did not know his son had become prime minister.
That personal experience has been a central influence on Mr Burnham’s determination to overhaul the social care system.
The prime minister had been due to welcome business leaders to No 10 this afternoon, but those plans will not go ahead.
In an interview with The Times on the eve of taking office in July, Mr Burnham set out the reality of his father’s deteriorating health.
He said his father did not realise he was about to enter Downing Street.
“That’s a sadness because he would be (proud). The way I look at it, it’s his achievement as well. A whole family achievement although he doesn’t know it,” Mr Burnham said.
Later that month, in a major address on social care reform, Mr Burnham vowed to act for “my dad and the millions like him” who face what he described as the unfairness built into the current system.
Communities Secretary Angela Rayner said: “My thoughts are with Andy and his family at this terribly difficult – and sad time.”
Mr Burnham’s father, who was in his mid-80s, worked as a telephone engineer, first for the Post Office and later for BT.
Roy and the prime minister’s mother, Eileen, raised their family in Culcheth, Cheshire, where Mr Burnham grew up with his two brothers.
The prime minister has described his upbringing as “close-knit”, recalling family life through the 70s and 80s in his book Look North.
In the 2024 book, co-written with Liverpool City Region mayor Steve Rotheram, Mr Burnham wrote: “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.
“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.”
