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Prime Minister Andy Burnham has cancelled official engagements on Monday and Tuesday following the death of his father Roy, who had Alzheimer’s. <\/b><\/p>\n
He had been due to host a meeting of business leaders in Downing Street on Monday, and was expected to speak at the annual trade union TUC Congress in Brighton on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
In July, Burnham spoke about his father’s condition and said it had influenced his drive to reform adult social care in England.<\/p>\n
He had also said his father’s illness was so advanced that he did not know his son had become prime minister.<\/p>\n
Speaking to the Times newspaper shortly before formally taking over as prime minister, Burnham said it was “a sadness, because he would be [proud]”.<\/p>\n
He continued: “The way I look at it, it’s his achievement as well. A whole family achievement, although he doesn’t know it.”<\/p>\n
The prime minister later said care home staff had shown his father footage of him entering Downing Street, calling it a “wonderful” thing.<\/p>\n
Burnham said he wanted to help “my dad and the millions like him” when setting out plans to reform adult social care.<\/p>\n
He said he had been “overwhelmed” by the skills and professionalism of care workers supporting his father.<\/p>\n
Burnham has described how his father, a former telephone engineer, had raised him with “laughter, love and support” alongside his mother Eileen in Culcheth, Cheshire.<\/p>\n
In his 2024 book Look North, he wrote that neither of his parents had attended university, but could have done had they “grown up in a different time and different place”.<\/p>\n
“Their knowledge of that fact seemed to make them all the more determined that their three sons would go.”<\/p>\n
Opposition politicians have offered their condolences to Burnham and his family. <\/p>\n
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said: “No matter how old you are, or how much you try to prepare, losing your father is a profoundly painful experience.<\/p>\n
“A part of your life that has always been there is suddenly gone forever and it can feel as though a part of you won’t ever be the same again.”<\/p>\n
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: “My heart goes out to the prime minister on the loss of his dad.<\/p>\n
“From our conversations he sounded like a wonderful man.”<\/p>\n
Green party leader Zack Polanski said: “There are moments in life such as this sad time that transcend politics and I join the whole country in sending condolences.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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