Although Andy Burnham has a man-of-the-people attitude, his political reinvention and cutthroat ambition have propelled him to become the next prime minister of the United Kingdom.
The 56-year-old will take Keir Starmer's position in 10 Downing Street on Monday after being named leader of the ruling Labour party on Friday for the third time.
Burnham's successful nine-year term as mayor of Greater Manchester, during which he changed from a former government minister to a political outsider, led to his promotion to the highest position.
Burnham served as a member of parliament from 2001 to 2017 and held important cabinet positions under prime leaders Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Burnham is seen as a pro-business socialist and a representative of Labour's "soft left" side.

Before leaving Westminster to become one of the most well-known regional leaders in Britain, he made two unsuccessful attempts to run for the Labour leadership in 2010 and 2015.
He is known as the "King of the North" because of his unwavering support for the area and his three consecutive election triumphs for the Greater Manchester mayoralty in northwest England.
His fame has increased thanks to slick and slightly whimsical social media videos.Joshi Herrmann, founder of Manchester-based start-up Mill Media, told AFP, "I think he is able to project himself as a normal bloke in a period in politics where a lot of politicians look very odd or very boring or very kind of systematized."The "Madchester" party music culture of the late 1980s and early 1990s was popular with devoted Everton football fans.
Burnham told the Huffington Post that he was "Catholic by upbringing" but "not particularly religious now." He has three children and a wife who was born in the Netherlands.
Before attending the University of Cambridge to study English, he joined Labour as a youngster. He claimed that because of his working-class upbringing, he frequently had "imposter syndrome" there.
At a ceremony in Liverpool on the twentieth anniversary of the Hillsborough football tragedy in 2009, he was confronted by a surge of unadulterated grief and hatred while serving as Gordon Brown's minister of culture and sport.

Burnham rose to global attention after leaving parliament during the Covid outbreak, openly disputing lockdown funds for northern England with Prime Minister Boris Johnson while serving as mayor of Manchester.
His reputation as a vocal supporter of regional sovereignty was solidified by the stalemate.He even has a tattoo of Manchester's iconic worker bee on his arm.
He promoted an agenda there that focused on housing, public health, and public transportation.
He described it as "business-friendly socialism" and termed it "Manchesterism" in response to "the high-inequality, low-growth trap" that he claims predominated in the 1980s.
After serving as a more moderate government minister for a while, Burnham moved to the left, which has prompted some to accuse him of being a political chameleon who takes advantage of the current climate.He has had to do multiple U-turns on earlier positions in recent weeks.Last year, Burnham clashed with Starmer, urging the UK leader to provide a more liberal agenda for Labour.He spoke of a "climate of fear" within the party and publicly opposed Starmer's welfare reforms.
In January, Burnham's attempt to reenter parliament was thwarted by Labour's ruling executive committee when Starmer supporters accused him of plotting to replace him.
Following the terrible results of the May local and regional elections, MP Josh Simons announced that he was resigning his seat in Makerfield to allow Burnham to challenge him for leadership.He has had to do multiple U-turns on earlier positions in recent weeks.
Burnham now needs to try to win back the support of Nigel Farage's Reform UK party, which has been leading Labour in national opinion polls for almost eighteen months.The public, in my opinion, is demanding a shift in politics that prioritizes problem-solving over point-scoring. In an interview with former football player Gary Lineker on Wednesday, Burnham stated, "I'm going to try to lay that out."