Prime Minister Andy Burnham has confirmed the death of his father, Roy, who was previously diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

Downing Street announced that the PM’s engagements today and tomorrow have been cancelled.

He had been due to host business leaders in No 10 this afternoon.

Known as Roy, Kenneth Roy Burnham was a former telephone engineer who worked for BT. His mother, Eileen, was a GP receptionist.

Roy had been living in a care home, and the Labour leader has spoken openly about his father’s condition.

When he became prime minister, Burnham said his dad was initially unaware of the news, although care home staff noticed he appeared to recognise his son at one point on TV.

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Appearing on Elizabeth Day’s How To Fail podcast last month, Burnham recalled a ‘wonderful’ moment from visiting his father the Sunday after he was sworn in.

Growing tearful, he remembered a manager telling him, ‘We wanted you to know, we all knew kind of what time you might be coming up Downing Street, so we got Roy in his chair, and we got the telly right in front of him, and six of us stood round him, and all said, “Look, Roy! Look, look!” and she said he turned and, momentarily, we thought he knew.’

And in an interview with The Times on the eve of taking office in July, Burnham revealed the extent of his father’s illness, explaining that his father didn’t know his son was on the brink of leadership.

‘That’s a sadness because he would be (proud),’ Burnham said.

‘The way I look at it, it’s his achievement as well. A whole family achievement, although he doesn’t know it.’

Both staunch Labour supporters, Burnham has long credited his parents for shaping his political values growing up.

Navigating his father’s health also became one of the driving factors in Burnham’s aim to reform the social care system.

Towards the end of the pandemic, Roy was diagnosed with prostate cancer, for which he had ‘intense’ treatment. He was later informed he had developed advanced Alzheimer’s.

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