Andy Burnham’s ‘king of the north’ jacket becomes museum piece

Coat worn by Greater Manchester mayor as he railed against area’s Covid-19 restrictions goes on display at People’s History Museum: ‘it’s a visual represntation of the split between Westminster and the regions’

Andy Burnham (with Sean Fielding in background) (Getty Images)

It was the jacket worn by Andy Burnham when he gave his now famous impromptu speech accusing the government of “playing poker with people’s lives” over coronavirus restrictions. On Wednesday, that navy blue coat became a museum piece.

The item – sported by the Greater Manchester mayor while he told reporters that his region was being placed into a new Covid-19 lockdown against its will – is to go on display at the People’s History Museum in the city.

The centre requested it after Mr Burnham’s October 2020 speech went viral and led to a new title being bestowed on the Labour stalwart: King of the North.

“As a museum, we knew that it was important to collect the political story of Covid for future generations,” said Sam Jenkins, collections manager at the centre. “We got a copy of the speech from that day but we also felt that the jacket was a great visual representation of the changing situation that autumn and of the split between Westminster and the regions.

“It struck a note with people because it is a very working class jacket and it feels authentic [on Mr Burnham], and it was very much in stark contrast to the suits being worn in those Westminster briefings.”

Andy Burnham displays jacket at People’s History Museum (People’s History Museum)

The garment joins other items of political fashion at the museum, which is dedicated to democracy and radicalism. They include Michael Foot’s so-called donkey jacket - a Tweed item worn to a 1981 Remembrance Day – and the leather jacket worn by veteran campaigner Harry Elliot Lesley Smith.

“Clothes are important,” said Jenkins. “In the years to come – 2050, 2100 – they will give a sense of the age.”

The coat worn by Mr Burnham was bought in the 2012 Boxing Day sales from House of Fraser in Manchester, he has said.

He only wore it on the day of the speech after his wife Marie told him not to put on a favoured North Face cagoule because he had been wearing it so often.

Yet quibblers might argue that, while the garment has come to symbolise a moment of Greater Manchester history, it was probably not even the best coat in camera shot that day. That perhaps belonged to then Oldham Council leader Sean Fielding, stood solemnly in the background sporting a knee-length number. There is, as yet, said Jenkins, no plans to request that for the museum.