Why Andy Burnham’s wife Marie-France van Heel flies under the radar

Andy Burnham’s wife, Marie-France van Heel, is standing down from her job as a marketing executive to concentrate on supporting the prime minister. She has been employed by MTV Europe and BSkyB and formed her own company MVH Marketing (which was dissolved three years after she founded it), before becoming chief strategy officer at London-based brand consultancy Heavenly in 2022. In 2024 she was appointed to the board of directors of Be.EV, one of the UK’s fastest-growing public electric vehicle (EV) charging networks. A Downing Street spokesman confirmed that Van Heel had taken the decision to resign from her position as chief customer officer at the Manchester-based electric vehicle charging network Be.EV. “She will continue to serve on the company’s board in an advisory role,” the spokesman said. “The prime minister has already recused himself of any decisions relating to EV charging.” As a Labour MP, Burnham has long been a golden boy in Manchester, with Oasis soundtracking his by-election campaign, and Noel Gallagher calling him “a good lad”. Shorts His wife of 26 years, Marie-France van Heel, on the other hand, flies below the radar. We know very little about her – she’s deleted all her social media and LinkedIn, and has done zero interviews – yet she is now one half of the most powerful couple in the UK. Marie-France (or “Frankie”, as she’s known) is Dutch but grew up in Belgium, and met Burnham at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University. In the early days of their relationship, she asked her new boyfriend for permission to appear on Blind Date, and – quite bravely – he agreed. She opted for “Will from Surrey” — a man clad in a pink jumper and dungarees, who Cilla Black said reminded her of a puppet from children’s television – and they went on a trip to Gibraltar. Thankfully for Burnham, there was no spark. When they returned the next week to evaluate their date, Will Harris – who later became director of communications for the Conservative Party – described her as a “cold fish” and Frankie chucked a cushion at him. She and Burnham went on to have three children: a son and two daughters – Jimmy, now 26, Rosie, 24, and Annie, 21. Marie-France van Heel on Blind Date with host Cilla Black and her date Will Harris (Photo: ITV) On the website of the marketing company she formerly worked for, Marie-France says in a Q&A that she wanted to be a children’s television presenter as a child. “I thought that appearing on a TV dating show might raise my profile and help my career,” she says. “Twenty years of intermittent mickey-taking was the result, but I’m happy to embrace my 15 minutes of fame/shame!” In a campaign video for Burnham’s 2015 Labour leadership bid, she comes off as down-to-earth and dryly funny. This doesn’t seem like an anomaly: in a 2023 interview for a former employer’s blog, she’s far more candid than you might expect a politician’s wife to be. To the question: “What was the last thing that made you laugh out loud?” she replies: “Rishi Sunak saying he was a big proponent of green policies. When I say ‘laugh out loud’, please add ‘in despair’ after…” Marie-France, Andy Burnham and their family – including Rosie, 24 (second from left), Annie, 21 (next to Andy), and Jimmy, 26 (right), second from right – during the 2024 Greater Manchester mayoral election (Photo: Peter Byrne/PA) There has been great hardship, too. In 2010, Marie-France had a double mastectomy after genetic testing confirmed she had the faulty gene which made her susceptible to contracting breast cancer. She had seen how devastating the disease could be for herself: her sister Claire had died of breast cancer at the age of 39, leaving four children behind. A friend of the family tells The i Paper that it is partly due to this, and the perspective one gains from a tragedy of this kind, that has encouraged her to try to avoid the attention that can surround the wives of politicians. While political wives have historically been very much centre stage, every detail of their life pored over, Marie-France is private to the point of being elusive. She was part of his original campaign trail a decade ago, but since then has kept an extremely low profile. Political wives have long been placed front and centre, used to humanise their husbands. The idea is, perhaps, that when we know who these powerful men choose to marry and have children with, we learn something about who they really are. In Burnham’s campaign video from 2015 for the Labour leadership, Marie-France comes off as down-to-earth and dryly funny (Photo: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty) I’ve been reporting on Manchester for years, and I’ve almost never witnessed her being discussed by politicians, or by constituents. Another friend of the family says that one reason for her commitment to privacy is that years ago she and Burnham attended the unveiling of the statue of the Queen Mother, and a tabloid published a double-page spread, plus a column, eviscerating her physical appearance, including what she was wearing. This is thought to have left her feeling that reactions to political spouses can be venomous, and that being in the spotlight isn’t worth the spite that can accompany it. Marie-France is not the only political wife staying in the shadows. Apart from appearances at Labour conferences, and a state banquet or two, Lady Victoria Starmer has remained far from the spotlight, and didn’t appear on Sir Keir’s campaign trail. Asked on LBC about his wife’s low profile, the now former prime minister made the point that she had a full-time job at an NHS hospital and that their eldest child was doing his GCSEs. “We took the decision that whilst I was out and about on the road, we wanted to create the environment where he could study calmly in ordinary circumstances.” Marie-France with her husband and daughter Rosie in Wigan after his victory in the Makerfield by-election (Photo: Jon Super/AP) There seems to be a transformation happening where political wives appear increasingly reluctant to play major, public-facing roles. In the past, the appetite of the public, media, and political parties for appearances from them has been insatiable. Sarah Brown’s warmth was leveraged by the Labour Party: she regularly stole the show at events, and threw her husband a lifeline when his popularity plummeted. And it’s hard to fathom Barack Obama without Michelle’s very public support and input. Cherie Blair is seen as a modernising force: she was the first prime minister’s wife to have gone to university, and she maintained her high-profile legal career while living at No 10. She was also active in election campaigns, and spent a decade very much in the public eye. All of this is a far cry from Lady Victoria or Marie-France, who choose to avoid the limelight in favour of their careers and their children. A political expert makes the point to The i Paper that Starmer and Burnham could benefit from rolling out their wives – impressive, successful working women – so it’s a credit to them that they don’t. Marie-France has always been private, according to another friend of the Burnhams, and she, Andy and the children are a particularly tight, close-knit family. That doesn’t seem likely to change, they say, even after their move into No 10.