Andy Burnham has been the elected mayor of Greater Manchester since May 2017, when he won the first-ever election for the role. He was re-elected for a second term in 2021, according to Labour's metro mayors register.

Two full terms make Burnham one of England's longest-serving metro mayors. The role itself is relatively new — the English mayoral positions were created as part of devolution deals in the mid-2010s, which handed power away from Westminster to cities and regions.

Greater Manchester's setup works like this: ten local boroughs (areas like Manchester, Stockport and Tameside) have a single elected mayor who oversees big decisions on transport, housing, jobs and — more recently — health. It is the most developed mayoral arrangement of its kind outside London.

Burnham arrived in the job with considerable experience. He had been Health Secretary under Gordon Brown and later Shadow Home Secretary — meaning he was known to politicians and the public before he became mayor. Most other metro mayors didn't have that kind of national profile when they started. This background, combined with Greater Manchester's size, gave the mayoralty more attention in Westminster than smaller mayoral roles typically receive.

His second election in 2021 came after Burnham's prominence had reached its highest point. In October 2020, he had a public disagreement with the government over Covid-19 lockdown rules for Greater Manchester. The region wanted more financial support before accepting tighter restrictions. The dispute was watched across the UK's devolved authorities as a test of how much power metro mayors actually have when national government policy affects different regions unevenly.

Here is the broader question worth considering: does being a directly elected mayor — with your own personal mandate from voters — change how a political figure operates compared to holding a traditional parliamentary seat or shadow role? Burnham's tenure suggests it does. He approaches Westminster not simply as someone asking for Treasury money, but as someone with his own democratic legitimacy to stand on.

As of 30 June 2026, Burnham is still in post. Whether he will run for a third term, or step back to pursue politics at Westminster level, is not yet decided. What seems clear is that his nine years continuously holding the mayoralty have shaped what the office itself has become — and that is something other devolved authorities across the UK are watching closely.