Andy Burnham’s father dies after battle with Alzheimer’s, British prime minister suspends schedule

Roy Burnham, the father of British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, has died after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

Downing Street announced that, following the loss, Burnham had cancelled all activities scheduled for today and tomorrow.

In recent years, the British prime minister had spoken publicly on several occasions about his father’s deteriorating condition. In a speech on welfare reform delivered at the end of July, he pledged to work to help “his father and millions of people like him,” whom he considered victims of a flawed system.

On 20 July, shortly before succeeding Keir Starmer in Downing Street, Burnham said it saddened him that Alzheimer’s was preventing his 80-year-old father from understanding that his son would become prime minister.

“It’s sad, because he would have been proud,” Burnham told The Times, while stressing that he also owed his political achievements to his father.

According to the planned schedule, Burnham was due to chair a roundtable today with business leaders and representatives of local government. A Cabinet meeting had been scheduled for tomorrow.