Andy Burnham cancels engagements as his father’s death is announced

Andy Burnham has cancelled his engagements for Monday and Tuesday after his father, Roy, died.

Among other plans, the prime minister had been due to speak to the TUC conference in Brighton on Tuesday.

Burnham’s father had Alzheimer’s and was in a care home. In an interview in July shortly before he become prime minister, Burnham said that his father’s condition meant he was unaware this was going to happen.

“That’s a sadness because he would be [proud],” Burnham 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.”

Burnham has also talked about the fact he wants to improve social care in part because of his experiences with his father, a former telephone engineer.

In one of his first speeches as prime minister, Burnham said it was humbling to see the “skill and the care and the professionalism” of care workers like those looking after his father, and that they should be paid more.