Andy Burnham announces father’s death and cancels all engagements

Andy Burnham’s father, Roy, has died (Picture: Joel Goodman/LNP) Prime Minister Andy Burnham has confirmed the death of his father, Roy, who was previously diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Downing Street announced that the PM’s engagements today and tomorrow have been cancelled. He had been due to host business leaders in No 10 this afternoon. Tomorrow, he had been scheduled to chair the weekly cabinet meeting and later speak at the Trade Union Congress in Brighton. Known as Roy, Kenneth Roy Burnham was a former telephone engineer who worked for BT. His mother, Eileen, was a GP receptionist. Sign up for all of the latest stories Start your day informed with Metro's News Updates newsletter or get Breaking News alerts the moment it happens. Roy had been living in a care home, and the Labour leader has spoken openly about his father’s condition. Burnham’s parents, Eileen and Roy, are credited with shaping his political values (Picture: PA) To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video When he became prime minister, Burnham said his dad was initially unaware of the news, although care home staff noticed he appeared to recognise his son at one point on TV. Appearing on Elizabeth Day’s How To Fail podcast last month, Burnham recalled a ‘wonderful’ moment from visiting his father the Sunday after he was sworn in. Growing tearful, he said it was a matter that made him ‘quite emotional’ as he remembered a manager telling him, ‘We wanted you to know, we all knew kind of what time you might be coming up Downing Street, so we got Roy in his chair, and we got the telly right in front of him, and six of us stood round him, and all said, “Look, Roy! Look, look!”‘ She added that ‘momentarily’, they thought Roy ‘knew’. And in an interview with The Times on the eve of taking office in July, Burnham revealed the extent of his father’s illness, explaining that his father didn’t know his son was on the brink of leadership. ‘That’s a sadness because he would be (proud),’ Burnham said. When he took power two months ago, Burnham said his father was unaware that he had become PM (Picture: Leon Neal/Getty Images) ‘The way I look at it, it’s his achievement as well. A whole family achievement, although he doesn’t know it.’ Both staunch Labour supporters, Burnham has long credited his parents for shaping his political values growing up. Navigating his father’s health also became one of the driving factors in Burnham’s aim to reform the social care system. In a major speech over the summer, Burnham promised to help ‘my dad and the millions like him’, who face the unfairness of the current system. He added that there are ‘millions of family carers, people like my mum, who try to care for my dad at home, who in the end are actually the main issue’. ‘We discovered as a family, my mum was sinking under the pressure of trying to make it work when the care system couldn’t make it work for her,’ he said, noting that no one should have to sell their home to pay for care in ‘an ideal world’. Towards the end of the pandemic, Roy was diagnosed with prostate cancer, for which he had ‘intense’ treatment. He was later informed he had developed advanced Alzheimer’s. Got a story? Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk. Or you can submit your videos and pictures here. For more stories like this, check our news page. Follow Metro.co.uk on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news updates. You can now also get Metro.co.uk articles sent straight to your device. Sign up for our daily push alerts here. Arrow MORE: Scottish leader says Burnham is ‘facing idea he could be final UK PM’ ahead of groundbreaking summit Arrow MORE: Andy Burnham ‘set to announce £200 energy bill cut’ – would you qualify? Arrow MORE: AI ‘presents risk to UK security’ after whistleblower says it could ‘wipe out humans’ News Updates Stay on top of the headlines with daily email updates.