Image source, PA MediaShe was described as the coolest girl in college when she first started dating Andy Burnham.
More than three decades later, Marie-France van Heel is about to walk into Downing Street alongside her husband to take on one of the most powerful unofficial roles in government – the prime minister’s spouse.
Burnham will replace Sir Keir Starmer in No 10 on Monday, and he met Dutch-born van Heel, known as Frankie, when she started studying at Fitzwilliam College at the University of Cambridge in 1989.
He was in his second year of an English Literature degree, and Burnham’s former lecturer, John Mullan, wrote in the Times that other students thought he had scooped the pools when they began dating.
Image source, Getty ImagesVan Heel was born in January 1970, the same month as Burnham, and grew up in the Netherlands and Belgium before moving to the UK.
Although they started dating at university, van Heel had a surprising request in the early days of their relationship, when she asked Burnham if she could go on Cilla Black’s TV dating show Blind Date – and he agreed.
So in 1992, wearing flares, a bottle green jacket and a yellow headband over her bobbed blonde hair, van Heel appeared on the hit ITV programme.
She chose Will from Surrey to be her date on a holiday to Gibraltar, but the pair did not hit it off.
Having quickly reunited, Burnham and van Heel were reportedly in a bar in Parliament 12 years later when Will walked in, having become the director of communications for the Conservative Party.
Image source, Shutterstock/ ITVBy this point, van Heel had given birth to their first child, Jimmy – and it was his birth in March 2000 which Burnham has said spurred them on to get married, after years of living together.
“I think marriage is better for kids,” Burnham told the Daily Telegraph in 2007, external, adding: “I’m a bit old fashioned on these matters – although I have to admit that Jimmy, my eldest son, was at our wedding so I’m only old fashioned up to a point.
“When my wife got pregnant for the first time it was a complete shock. My first thought was, ‘Oh my God, we’ll have to get married’.”
Their daughters, Rosie and Annie, were born a few years later while the couple were living in Manchester.
Rosie and Jimmy work for drinks brand Jägermeister and the Royal College of Nursing respectively, while Annie has just graduated from Cardiff University.
Neither van Heel nor the children are expected to move into Downing Street, but nothing has been confirmed about where their rescue dog Axel will live.
Image source, Getty Images
Image source, Getty ImagesVan Heel has worked in marketing and strategy for many years, notably for Sky, and has also been involved in the logo designs for the BBC and England Rugby.
That professional experience is credited by some for helping design Burnham’s striking campaign logos, external, which feature a cartoon of the northerner in his trademark black t-shirt and black NHS-style glasses.
There has also been a small controversy over van Heel’s current role as the chief marketing officer of Iduna, which owns large parts of Manchester’s electric vehicle charging network.
As Greater Manchester Mayor, Burnham had declared his wife’s job and stepped away from all decisions about Iduna and any linked infrastructure to avoid any perception of a conflict of interest.
The Conservatives complained he had not declared she held 0.2% of company shares, the Times , externalreported, but the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) confirmed Burnham was given legal advice that no further declaration was necessary because he had already declared Van Heel as an employee.
“We are satisfied that the mayor has met his legal obligations to register disclosable pecuniary interests,” a GCMA spokesperson said.
Burnham brands claims against wife ‘disgraceful’
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20 February 2022
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