Andy Burnham’s heartbreaking tribute to dad Roy

In one of the most moving stories Andy has previously told about his rise to Downing Street, he recalled how care workers gathered around his father in his care home and placed the television in front of him as his son walked down Downing Street.

Roy, who had Alzheimer's, may have recognised Andy for just a moment. Hundreds of miles away, Andy was embracing his mum Eileen outside Number 10 - and, as he later revealed, quietly whispering to her about his dad.

New Prime Minister Andy Burnham, hugs his mother, Eileen Burnham, as he arrives in Downing Street (Image: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire)

Roy Burnham, a former telecommunications engineer, lived with Alzheimer's in the final years of his life. His illness meant that he was unable to fully understand the extraordinary achievement of his son becoming Prime Minister.

For Andy, that was one of the great sadnesses of the moment.

“That's a sadness because he would be [proud],” he told The Times. “But the way I look at it, it's his achievement as well. A whole family achievement although he doesn't know it.”

Yet, in the days after Andy entered Downing Street, something happened that seemed to offer the family a precious moment of connection.

Andy visited Roy at his care home six days after becoming Prime Minister. The staff had watched the television coverage and knew roughly when Andy would be arriving at Downing Street.

They told the prime minister they brought Roy into position in front of the television, gathered around him and tried to draw his attention to the screen.

“We all knew 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 around him and all said, ‘Roy, look’.”

Andy Burnham hugs his parents Eileen and Roy after he was selected as the Labour candidate for the Mayor of Greater Manchester in 2016 (Image: Peter Byrne/PA Wire)

The staff believed that, for a fleeting moment, Roy understood.

“He turned and momentarily, they said, ‘we thought he knew’,” Andy recalled.

It is difficult to imagine a more poignant moment in the story of a Prime Minister's arrival at Downing Street.

While Andy was standing outside Number 10 with his mother, Eileen, his thoughts were with the father who was watching from a care home far away.

Asked about the embrace with his mother, Andy explained simply: “I was whispering in her ear about my dad.”

And Roy's influence on his son went far beyond that single moment.

Andy has spoken candidly about how his father's dementia affected the whole family and, particularly, his mother, who had tried to care for Roy at home.

His experience of watching his parents navigate the care system became one of the reasons he wanted to change it.

He spoke of the millions of people whose basic needs are not properly met and the families who struggle alongside them.

Eileen Burnham, as her son Prime Minister Andy Burnham arrives in Downing Street, (Image: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire)

“Millions of people are going without their basic needs being met because the system isn't good enough to meet their basic daily needs,” he said.

And then he spoke of the people like his mother who become carers themselves:

“You have millions of family carers, people like my mum, who try to care for my dad at home.”