As the United Kingdom moves to select its seventh prime minister in a decade, how might Andy Burnham\u2019s Catholic roots affect his leadership?<\/p>\n
LONDON \u2014 Andy Burnham was officially named the leader of Britain\u2019s governing Labour Party on July 17, paving the way for him to become the United Kingdom\u2019s first prime minister to enter office publicly identifying identifying as a Catholic.<\/p>\n
Following the resignation of Prime Minister<\/a> Keir Starmer on June 22, Burnham became the main contender<\/a> to replace him. <\/p>\n Previous prime ministers have had connections to the Catholic faith, although none have begun their terms in office as practicing Catholics. Tony Blair, prime minister from 1997 to 2007, converted to Catholicism after leaving office. Boris Johnson, prime minister from 2019 to 2022, though baptized a Catholic as an infant, entered Downing Street as an Anglican.<\/p>\n Burnham, 56, who was sworn in on a Bible as a new Member of Parliament on June 22, has described<\/a> his Catholic faith as \u201cunshowy,\u201d telling<\/a> The Guardian in 2009: \u201cThree things are important in my life apart from family: Everton [Football Club], the Labour Party, and the Catholic Church \u2014 in that order.\u201d<\/p>\n The appointment could also raise a constitutional question concerning his role in episcopal appointments.<\/p>\n At play if Burnham becomes prime minister will be a landmark U.K. law known as the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 (also called the Catholic Emancipation Act). It grants Roman Catholics the right to sit in Parliament and hold most public offices but does not allow them to advise the crown on Church of England episcopal appointments. How this provision may operate in modern constitutional practice remains contested.<\/p>\n Jon Tonge, a politics professor at the University of Liverpool, told EWTN News: \u201cLegally, Burnham would be prohibited from advising the monarch on [Church of England] bishops. The law has not been repealed. The lord chancellor will provide the advice.\u201d<\/p>\n An \u2018a la Carte\u2019 Catholicism<\/p>\n Tonge continued: \u201cEven though he\u02bcs not a regular at Mass, [Burnham] sent his children to Catholic schools. \u2026 It is an \u2018a la carte\u2019 Catholicism, which ignores the social conservatism (opposition to same-sex marriage or to abortion, as examples) and attempts to apply Catholic social teaching principles to policy. Equality, fairness, justice, and help for those with least are at its heart \u2014 hence Burnham\u02bcs commitment to tackle homelessness in Greater Manchester and donate some of his salary to the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n Burnham has said he was raised with a “live and let live<\/a>” approach, something that has shaped his stance on policy. He supports abortion<\/a> and same-sex marriage<\/a> and is in favor of assisted suicide<\/a> for terminally ill adults, positions that are not in line with the teachings of the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n Andrea Williams, chief executive of Christian Concern, told EWTN News: \u201cI can\u02bct actually see anything that\u02bcs obviously Christian in his [Burnham\u2019s] policies. A person that professes and confesses faith will always uphold marriage between one man and one woman, will not champion trans ideology into law and into policy. \u2026 He\u02bcs pro-assisted suicide, he\u02bcs pro-liberalization of abortion. So that doesn\u02bct actually match with his faith.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2023, Burnham delighted Pope Francis at the Vatican when he gifted the pontiff a shirt signed by fellow Argentinian Lisandro Martinez, a player for Manchester United. Following Francis\u2019 death, Burnham described the meeting as the \u201cmost moving\u201d experience of his life<\/a> \u2014 despite having previously pressured the pope to bring the Catholic Church \u201cinto the 21st<\/a> century<\/a>\u201d on issues including LGBT rights.<\/p>\n Growing up in the 1980s in Warrington, Burnham attended St. Aelred\u02bcs Catholic High School and was raised in his Irish mother Eileen\u2019s Catholic faith. She said in a 2015 interview<\/a>: \u201cYou should have seen the fights he and his brothers had on Sundays. They were all altar boys, but Andy had to be the one at the front holding the Communion plate.\u201d <\/p>\n Burnham married Marie-France van Heel in 2000 after meeting at Cambridge University\u02bcs Fitzwilliam College in 1989, and they have three grown children.<\/p>\n