Andy Burnham’s childhood home in Aintree, Liverpool, has been identified as the house his grandmother secretly put a deposit on after walking three miles through the bomb-damaged city.
The property in Keble Drive, Old Roan, was at the centre of the Prime Minister’s first speech to the Labour conference as party leader, in which he linked his family’s story to housing and working-class aspiration.
“She put a deposit down on a house. The house where I was born. It changed the fortunes of my family,” Mr Burnham told delegates. “With a good home, everything is possible. Without one, it feels like nothing is.”
The three-bedroom semi-detached house is still standing and has retained the same next-door neighbour who lived there when Mr Burnham was born in March 1970. It has since been partly extended, with grey-painted brickwork, cream rendered walls and a block-paved driveway.
Mr Burnham’s grandparents, James and Catherine Murray – known as Jimmy and Kitty – bought the property after the Second World War. Jimmy drove a lorry for Tate & Lyle, while Kitty was described by her grandson as a determined woman of Irish ancestry.
In his speech, Mr Burnham said Kitty had walked from the city to put down the deposit without telling her husband. “It was where my mum and dad started off, built a partnership and went on to create our own family home and filled it with life, love and laughter,” he said.
The house has changed hands since the Murrays lived there. Barry and Eunice Jones bought it for £28,000 in 1984 and were “pleasantly shocked” when a neighbour told them the Prime Minister had been born there.
Mrs Jones, 80, said the couple had heard Mr Burnham’s speech and now regarded their home as famous. “It’s great Andy was born here,” she said, adding that the family had wondered whether he was born in one of the bedrooms or downstairs.
Her husband, Barry, 75, ordered Mr Burnham’s birth certificate after learning the property’s history. The former further-education worker later became a lay preacher at Aintree University Hospital.
The Joneses have not met Mr Burnham, although they once passed him near the House of Commons. Their son-in-law later encountered him on a train and told him that the couple lived in his former home.
The neighbouring house has been occupied by Dolores Mahar, now 88, since the Beatles were still recording. She recalled Mr Burnham playing with her son in the gardens.
“His family were lovely and so was Andy but he was a bit of a feisty boy,” Mrs Mahar said. She remembered the boys having occasional arguments and throwing balls over the garden, describing it as “just boys’ stuff”.
Mr Burnham said the home in Keble Drive had helped unlock his parents’ hopes for a better future. He also paid tribute to his mother Eileen and his father Roy, a former Post Office engineer who died earlier this month after suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
“With a good home, everything is possible. Without one, it feels like nothing is,” Mr Burnham said. “Kids can’t have a good start in life. Families can’t have good health, physical and mental health.”
He described his family’s journey as one of “working-class aspiration” and said it reflected the experience of many British families of his generation.
