Andy Burnham builds leadership bid on Manchester music
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- Andy Burnham launched his Makerfield byelection campaign (polling 18 June) with a video soundtracked by Oasis, Elbow and James and a northern soul-influenced 'Change Labour, Keep the Faith' logo, and this week proposed business rates cuts for music venues as part of his pitch.
- Burnham's political relationship with Manchester's music scene dates to the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing, which occurred 17 days after he became mayor; he backed the One Love Manchester fundraiser and joined the 1975 on stage at Parklife in a 'moment of noise' for victims.
- Burnham established the Greater Manchester Music Commission in 2021 and leads it himself, despite having no formal powers or budget over culture — and helped bring both the Brit Awards and the Mobo Awards to Manchester, according to Co-op Live senior VP Guy Dunstan.
- Burnham appointed Warehouse Project and Parklife founder Sacha Lord as the city's unpaid Night Time Economy Adviser in 2018; Lord resigned in January 2025 after the Arts Council said his company misled them in applying for a £400,000 Covid support grant (Lord denies wrongdoing), with Burnham saying he believed Lord's claim that there was 'no intention to mislead'.
- Burnham has used his platform to spotlight emerging artists like OneDa — a Black, gay female rapper he flew to SXSW in Austin in 2024 — and has DJed charity battles against Liverpool mayor Steve Rotheram, blending Inspiral Carpets and Stone Roses with LCD Soundsystem and Gorillaz.
- Critics including The Mill journalist Jack Dulhanty suggest Burnham's music-industry alliances are partly performative, and note that some of the UK's sharpest rent increases have hit Manchester during Burnham's mayoralty — leaving musicians and night-time economy workers unclear how they have benefited from the property-led boom.
- Elbow's Guy Garvey, who approved 'One Day Like This' for Burnham's campaign video, called the mayor 'not an ordinary man' and said the British music industry could soon have 'their strongest advocate yet in No 10' if Burnham reaches Westminster.
Why it matters: If Burnham reaches Westminster, Manchester's music industry gains a prime minister with personal ties to its scene — and a track record of luring the Brits and Mobos to the city — but the unresolved Sacha Lord £400,000 grant controversy and the property boom's impact on venue rents show that 'Brand Burnham' and material policy outcomes for musicians have not always aligned. A leadership-bid win would make the cultural economy a national political priority for the first time in years; a byelection loss ends the experiment before it starts.
