influenced his drive to reform adult social care in England<\/a>.<\/p>\nHe had also said his father’s illness was so advanced that he did not know his son had become prime minister.<\/p>\n
Burnham told the BBC that while his father could not be there when he entered No 10 to take up the role, he and his mother had “exchanged a few words about my dad and how proud he would be”.<\/p>\n
“That’s a little hard, but then again I’ve said, it’s their achievement”, he told Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg in July.<\/p>\n
“The emotion of that moment was, well, bittersweet – it was painful in one way but beautiful in another.”<\/p>\n
The prime minister later said care home staff had shown his father footage of him entering Downing Street, calling it a “wonderful” thing.<\/p>\n
Burnham said he wanted to help “my dad and the millions like him” when setting out plans to reform adult social care.<\/p>\n
He said he had been “overwhelmed” by the skills and professionalism of care workers supporting his father.<\/p>\n
Burnham has described how his father, a former telephone engineer, had raised him with “laughter, love and support” alongside his mother Eileen in Culcheth, Cheshire.<\/p>\n
In his 2024 book Look North, he wrote that neither of his parents had attended university, but could have done had they “grown up in a different time and different place”.<\/p>\n
“Their knowledge of that fact seemed to make them all the more determined that their three sons would go.”<\/p>\n
Opposition politicians have offered their condolences to Burnham and his family. <\/p>\n
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said: “No matter how old you are, or how much you try to prepare, losing your father is a profoundly painful experience.<\/p>\n
“A part of your life that has always been there is suddenly gone forever and it can feel as though a part of you won’t ever be the same again.”<\/p>\n
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: “My heart goes out to the prime minister on the loss of his dad.<\/p>\n
“From our conversations he sounded like a wonderful man.”<\/p>\n
Green party leader Zack Polanski said: “There are moments in life such as this sad time that transcend politics and I join the whole country in sending condolences.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
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