Heartbreak that has shaped UK’s prospective ‘first lady’

As all eyes are on the PM-in-waiting, his wife, Marie-France, is resolutely staying out of the spotlight. Katie Rosseinsky takes a look at why – and how their relationship has evolved

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When Andy Burnham told his wife, Marie-France van Heel, of his plans to return to Westminster, her reply was “probably a two-word answer”, according to the former mayor of Greater Manchester.

She was “probably half-joking”, Burnham added, but you can surely use your imagination to fill in the blanks and guess exactly what those two words were. And who can blame her if she was feeling ever so slightly exasperated by the “King of the North’s” change of direction?

Fifty-six-year-old Van Heel, who tends to go by Frankie and met Burnham when they were both students at Cambridge, has watched her husband go from New Labour MP to health secretary to leadership race loser (twice) to popular Manchester mayor. But she has never shown much interest in following the “political wife” trope or indeed in courting the spotlight herself. But should Burnham end up in Downing Street as the UK’s seventh prime minister in 10 years, that spotlight might be harder to avoid.

Aside from a campaign video uploaded to the YouTube channel “Andy4Leader” about a decade ago, in which she teases Burnham about his student-y aesthetic during their early relationship - “the long hair and the good looks... and the monobrow” - it’s rare for her to give an interview. Mention her name to political insiders and the general consensus is she’s “very nice”, but beyond that, you'll be hard-pressed to get much more.