An interesting perspective on working with Andy Burnham comes from former Special Adviser to Nick Clegg Shabnum Mustapha. Shabnum advised Nick on Scotland media matters during the coalition years.

In 2019, she moved to Manchester to take up a job with the Greater Manchester Authority as Assistant Director of news and media. She writes about how then Mayor Andy Burnham, before he was King of the North and Future PM, operated:

My experience of working with him is that he gets things done. He has a strong work ethic, he’s very driven and he’s ambitious about what he wants to deliver. For those of us who had to get on and do the delivering, it could be tough with long hours, and we were being constantly stretched to go further and faster. However, Burnham’s strength is that he keeps people motivated, he takes people on the journey with him, and he always went out of his way to thank and acknowledge colleagues for their work.

He’s likeable and he makes people feel that he’ll stand up for them which is why the showdown during Covid resonated with a lot of people outside of Greater Manchester and led to the moniker “King of the North”. He reminds me of the late Charles Kennedy who had the charm to put people at ease, he could speak human and he had the ability to transcend party politics.

He also has a bit of Vince Cable about him. Having worked for both, I never knew what they were going to say in a speech until they said it because they didn’t use notes. It may sound like I’m a Burnham fangirl but I’m not. I’m actually a card-carrying member of the Liberal Democrats and I worked as a political adviser to Nick Clegg when he was Deputy Prime Minister during the coalition years.

She highlights how comfortable he is working cross party to get stuff done:

Because he’s moved away from the tribal way of doing politics, Burnham is very comfortable working with any politician to get things done. From working with Michael Gove to improve housing standards following the shocking death of toddler Awaab Ishak in his mould infested home in Rochdale, to working with Lib Dem-run Stockport Council to extend the trams there, to sharing platforms with Glasgow City Council’s SNP Leader Susan Aitken.

You can read the whole article here.

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