Andy Burnham, a cradle Catholic whose faith has ebbed and flowed like ‘Magic FM in the Chilterns’, has publicly backed the pension triple lock, vowing to abide by Labour’s 2024 manifesto promises. The Greater Manchester mayor, hovering on the threshold of No 10, has given a rare public indication of how his religious upbringing continues to influence him.
Born to a Catholic mother and educated in Catholic schools in the North West of England – where many owe their faith to migrant forebears who crossed the Irish Sea for work – Burnham was an altar boy, attending early morning Mass alongside his brothers. His childhood was punctuated by holy days, First Holy Communions and May processions, a structure and culture shaped by faith that eventually propelled him from a working-class family to Cambridge University.
“Andy Burnham backs pension triple lock, citing 2024 manifesto, as his Catholic upbringing and 'culture of encounter' shape politics.”
Yet his relationship with the Church has been contradictory. Last year, delivering the annual lecture for the religion-meets-politics think-tank Theos, he called for a shift from a ‘crisis of trust’ to ‘a culture of encounter’ – a phrase he attributed to Pope Francis, meaning openness to the most marginalised. Meeting the pontiff at the Vatican two years earlier, he said, ‘was the greatest privilege of my life’.
But he has also criticised the Church over issues such as same-sex marriage. ‘My mother was not religious in any showy way,’ he told The Tablet during his first Labour leadership campaign in 2010 (which he lost to Ed Miliband). ‘I am like her in that, to use a Scouse phrase, we don’t lick the altar steps.’
Now, as speculation grows over a major pension change, Burnham has drawn a clear line. He will stand by the triple lock – the manifesto commitment that ensures state pensions rise by the highest of inflation, average earnings or 2.5% – despite reports that some of his own advisers oppose it. ‘He said he will abide by the promises made in Labour’s 2024 manifesto,’ a source confirmed.
The question remains whether his faith, which he says compels a ‘culture of encounter’ with the marginalised, will also shape his approach to the welfare state. For now, the cradle Catholic who once called the Catechism ‘powerful and strong and right’ is holding firm on the triple lock.