{"id":15732,"date":"2026-07-24T13:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T08:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=15732"},"modified":"2026-07-24T13:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T08:18:10","slug":"meet-marie-france-van-heel-wife-of-britains-new-prime-minister-andy-burnham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=15732","title":{"rendered":"Meet Marie-France van Heel, Wife of Britain&#8217;s New Prime Minister Andy Burnham"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"paragraph-content\">\n<div>\n<p data-testid=\"paragraph-element\" class=\"rich-text mb-6 font-graphik text-body-large text-black-coffee mt-8 focus-visible:outline focus-visible:outline-black-coffee focus-visible:outline-2 focus-visible:outline-offset-2 focus-visible:shadow-focus-color text-left\">Luckily for Burnham, van Heel and Harris failed to find a spark on their date and swiftly went their separate ways.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><h3 id=\"burnham-has-had-the-support-of-his-wife-from-the-beginning-of-his-political-career\" class=\"scroll-mt-24 font-editorial text-black-coffee text-mobile-h3 lg:scroll-mt-28 lg:text-h3 mb-4\">Burnham has had the support of his wife from the beginning of his political career<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p data-testid=\"paragraph-element\" class=\"rich-text mb-6 font-graphik text-body-large text-black-coffee mt-8 focus-visible:outline focus-visible:outline-black-coffee focus-visible:outline-2 focus-visible:outline-offset-2 focus-visible:shadow-focus-color text-left\">Burnham told van Heel on the first night they met that he wanted to be an MP [Member of Parliament].<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p data-testid=\"paragraph-element\" class=\"rich-text mb-6 font-graphik text-body-large text-black-coffee mt-8 focus-visible:outline focus-visible:outline-black-coffee focus-visible:outline-2 focus-visible:outline-offset-2 focus-visible:shadow-focus-color text-left\">\u201cI met him on my first day at university. Yes, with the long hair, the good looks, and monobrow,\u201d van Heel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/2015\/aug\/11\/andy-burnham-profile-never-westminster-in-crowd\" title=\"undefined\" target=\"undefined\">recalled<\/a> in a 2015 interview. When Burnham told her of his political aspirations, van Heel \u201cleft the room,\u201d but they soon formed a burgeoning relationship.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p data-testid=\"paragraph-element\" class=\"rich-text mb-6 font-graphik text-body-large text-black-coffee mt-8 focus-visible:outline focus-visible:outline-black-coffee focus-visible:outline-2 focus-visible:outline-offset-2 focus-visible:shadow-focus-color text-left\">When he was considering running for the Labour leadership contest in 2015, Burnham had his family at the forefront of his mind.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p data-testid=\"paragraph-element\" class=\"rich-text mb-6 font-graphik text-body-large text-black-coffee mt-8 focus-visible:outline focus-visible:outline-black-coffee focus-visible:outline-2 focus-visible:outline-offset-2 focus-visible:shadow-focus-color text-left\">\u201cWe talked it through and it was very much a team effort, a family effort. I wouldn\u2019t put them through it if I wasn\u2019t sure,\u201d he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.co.uk\/2015\/08\/10\/andy-burnham-interview-catholic-church-tampon-tax_n_7961096.html\" title=\"undefined\" target=\"undefined\">said<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><h3 id=\"van-heel-s-family-experience-with-cancer\" class=\"scroll-mt-24 font-editorial text-black-coffee text-mobile-h3 lg:scroll-mt-28 lg:text-h3 mb-4\">Van Heel\u2019s family experience with cancer\u00a0<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p data-testid=\"paragraph-element\" class=\"rich-text mb-6 font-graphik text-body-large text-black-coffee mt-8 focus-visible:outline focus-visible:outline-black-coffee focus-visible:outline-2 focus-visible:outline-offset-2 focus-visible:shadow-focus-color text-left\">Burnham previously served as Health Secretary under the premiership of Gordon Brown from 2009 to 2010, then as the shadow Health Secretary following Labour\u2019s defeat in the 2010 general election.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Luckily for Burnham, van Heel and Harris failed to find a spark on their date and swiftly went their separate ways. Burnham has had the support of his wife from the beginning of his political career Burnham told van Heel on the first night they met that he wanted to be an MP [Member of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static.time.com\/v3\/assets\/bltea6093859af6183b\/blt674b846184af9a1e\/6a60a444f19b3f0433c2248e\/van-heel-burnham-wtk-july20.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}