I photographed Britain's next Prime Minister Andy Burnham (Rory Lewis Photographer 2026)
Today Sir Keir Starmer announced his resignation. Within the hour, the party had closed ranks behind the man I photographed four years ago in Manchester.
This morning, outside Downing Street, Sir Keir Starmer announced that he would step down as leader of the Labour Party and as Prime Minister. He will remain as caretaker while his successor is chosen. By the time he had finished speaking, the question of who that successor would be looked all but settled.
Andy Burnham, sworn in only today as the new Member of Parliament for Makerfield, confirmed he would stand. Wes Streeting, the one figure thought capable of mounting a challenge, set aside his own ambitions and offered his backing instead. The party has rallied. If no rival emerges when nominations open on 9 July, Burnham could enter Downing Street within weeks. For now he is not Prime Minister, but he has been practically crowned as one.
I photographed Andy Burnham in 2021, during his tenure as Mayor of Greater Manchester. The pleasing part, from where I sit, is that the portrait already exists. I did not have to go anywhere to make it happen. He had to get on a train from Manchester to Westminster; I had captured him years before, while he was still the figure they called the King of the North. Should his leadership be confirmed, he would become the fifth Prime Minister I have photographed.
There is a long tradition behind this. Portraiture has always kept close company with power, from the court painters of the Renaissance who fixed the likeness of a ruler before the public ever saw the man, to the photographers who now do the same work in a single morning. The task does not change. You are trying to find the person behind the office, often before the office has fully arrived. In 2021 Burnham was a mayor with a national reputation and an obvious sense of where he was heading. The portrait was made with that trajectory in mind.
It is a strange privilege to hold an image of someone on the morning the country decides to hand him the keys to the building. The sitting is done. The history is catching up to it.
More to follow as the leadership process unfolds over the coming weeks.
