‘It’s my job to challenge the government’: Andy Burnham interviewed

Less than three weeks after Andy Burnham was elected mayor of Greater Manchester three years ago, the city was hit by the terrorist attack that claimed 22 lives at an Ariana Grande concert. Now Burnham is facing a very different sort of crisis as corona-virus sweeps through the north-west. Manchester is about two weeks behind London in the epidemic curve.

We had first met in his office to talk about the city and its politics. But that was at the start of last month — my questions, and his answers, were quickly overtaken by events. When we speak again, this time over Skype, much has changed. He has swapped the red-brick Victorian office in Manchester for his son’s bedroom in the loft, and he’s adjusting to being restricted to buying three craft lagers when he shops at Morrisons (‘They had to remove some offending items from my trolley because I had too many’).