Will Andy Burnham’s biggest battle be with his own imposter syndrome?
Andy Burnham’s longtime friend and “bezzie mate” Steve Rotheram, Liverpool City mayor, tells The News Agents how the new PM’s working class upbringing has left him with ‘imposter syndrome’ – but will it hold him back?
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What’s the story?
As the UK's new prime minister, Andy Burnham is working to reshape the NHS, improve social care and maintain international relationships – but he may also have some work a little closer to home as well.
Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region and Burnham’s “bezzie mate” says the PM has ‘imposter syndrome’, which has been shaped by his working class upbringing.
People who struggle with imposter syndrome doubt their own talents or achievements, and live in the perceived fear of being exposed as a fraud in their current situation.
This week, Burnham will meet with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which will no doubt test Burnham's political skills – and that feeling of imposter syndrome
"He can talk to President Trump or Zelensky or anybody at that level," Rotheram tells Lewis Goodall.
"In private sessions with these people. It's no different with them than he is with anybody else.
"But Andy's never lost the working class-ness, if you like, or that imposter syndrome that you feel."
He says his pal is managing the situation well so far.
"I know he's got imposter syndrome, or he's had imposter syndrome for many years, just like most people from working class backgrounds," Rotheram adds.
Despite Burnham’s Cambridge education, then working his way from special advisor to MP, to cabinet and now PM, Rotheram insists Burnham is still working class, through and through.
"Where you're from, that forms you into the person that you become, and he's from an ordinary working class background," Rotheram adds.
‘We need hope in the country’
He says Burnham, in his first week in Downing Street, has been dominating the national political conversation, with a string of positive announcements to give working people and businesses “room to breathe” amid the cost of living crisis.
"You have to compare and contrast, with what was almost a message of despair under Starmer, to the message of hope that Andy is obviously day after day going out there and banging on about," Rotheram says.
"And so he should, because we need hope in the country."
Does Andy Burnham still have a ‘Catholic guilt complex’?
Prior to becoming Prime Minister, Burnham travelled to Rome in 2023 when he was Mayor of Greater Manchester, taking his mum Eileen with him.
Raised a Catholic, Rotheram says religion has shaped the new PM, even if he is no longer as strict as he may once have been.
"He could have picked anybody to take, but he wanted to go with his mum. I just think that shows you the ordinaryness of him," Rotheram says.
"Catholicism has been important in his life. I think he's less devout today.”
"He still has the Catholic guilt complex and stuff like that, so there's plenty of his religious upbringing that still has shaped him into the person that he is."
‘Andy Burnham is ambitious – and why shouldn’t he be?’
But despite Burnham’s imposter syndrome, Rotheram says there is one thing that helps him find his footing among Westminster’s elites - his sense of ambition.
"I don't think he's ever shied away from the fact that he's ambitious politically, and quite rightly so," he concludes.
"Most politicians that I've met are uber political and ambitious, but Andy's somebody who has waited for the opportunity, and the opportunity presented itself.
"And why shouldn't he be ambitious?"