Andy Burnham will be the first prime minister for 50 years to represent a constituency in north-west England and only the third premier since 1900 to hold a seat in the region.
Burnham's Constituency and Historical Context
Mr Burnham became member of parliament for Makerfield in Greater Manchester a few weeks ago, after winning a by-election on June 18. He will be the first prime minister with a seat in the North West since Labour’s Harold Wilson, who was MP for Huyton in Merseyside throughout his two stints in Downing Street from 1964-70 and 1974-76.
In the five decades between Mr Wilson leaving office in 1976 and the start of Mr Burnham’s premiership in 2026, 11 people held the job of prime minister. Three of them had constituencies in London: Margaret Thatcher (Finchley), Boris Johnson (Uxbridge & South Ruislip) and most recently Sir Keir Starmer (Holborn & St Pancras). Two had seats in south-east England, David Cameron (Witney in Oxfordshire) and Theresa May (Maidenhead in Berkshire), and two were in eastern England: John Major (Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire) and Liz Truss (South West Norfolk).
Other Prime Ministers Since 1976
The four other prime ministers between 1976 and 2026 had constituencies far from Westminster, though none were in the North West: Jim Callaghan represented Cardiff South East in Wales, Tony Blair’s seat was Sedgefield in north-east England, Gordon Brown represented Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath in Scotland, and Rishi Sunak’s seat was Richmond in Yorkshire.
Along with Harold Wilson and Andy Burnham, only one other prime minister since the start of the 20th century has represented a seat in the North West: the Conservative Arthur Balfour, who was MP for Manchester East during his premiership from 1902-05.
Historical Patterns
Mr Balfour’s immediate predecessor as prime minister, his uncle Lord Salisbury, is the most recent example in UK history of a politician who spent their entire time as premier as a member of the House of Lords, rather than as an MP representing a constituency.
None of the eight prime ministers between 1902 and 1940 held seats in southern or eastern England. But starting in 1940, when Winston Churchill first became prime minister, constituencies in the south and east of the UK have been heavily represented in Downing Street, with 11 of the 19 PMs since that date holding seats in these areas of the country.
