Andy Burnham: ‘It’s so hard when people just walk past’

Big Issue and Andy Burnham go way back. In 2018, Burnham, a year into his role as mayor of Greater Manchester, took to the streets to try his hand at selling the magazine.

“It brought home how hard it is for people selling,” Burnham said at the time. 

“It’s so hard when people just walk past. But overall, more people than I thought came up and bought one – the people of Greater Manchester are generous. It also brings home how valuable Big Issue can be as a lifeline for people in need.”

He enjoyed the experience so much that the following year, he returned to his honorary pitch under the expert guidance of Colin, who for many years has sold in the centre of Manchester, between Manchester Metropolitan University’s Number 70 (formerly The Cornerhouse) and arts centre HOME.

“He sold seven mags in half an hour,” Colin recalls, clearly impressed, though modestly declining to take credit for his expert tuition.

 “I joked to him, ‘You’re getting your staff to come out and buy them!’”

He saw Burnham again a few months later, when staff and vendors marched in the Manchester Day parade of 2019, exchanging enthusiastic greetings as they passed.

“He’s brilliant,” Colin says. “He talks to people a lot. He talks to me every time he comes past, and he’s bought quite a few mags from me.” 

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Burnham appeared on the cover in 2023; he even signed a copy for Colin to keep after joining the Big Issue vendor on his pitch to sell the magazine. The politician cover star told Big Issue he thought giving everyone a good home was “a very realistic policy and I’m really committed to it”. Three years later, it promises to be one of the flagship policies of his premiership.

That edition has proven to be a collectors’ item for Colin.

He said: “One of my regulars came up to me and said, ‘You still got any copies of Andy Burnham in the mag?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘Oh, really? That could be worth money soon!’” he laughs.

Colin was thrilled to see Burnham surge to victory in the Makerfield by-election earlier this year, in which he beat Reform candidate Robert Kenyon by over 10,000 votes. 

“I couldn’t believe it,” Colin says. “25,000 votes! I was like, ‘Wow, he blew him out of the water.’ I’ve been wanting to say congratulations!”

He is also enthusiastic about the prospect of No 10 North. “That’d be good for communities,” he says. And he’s very keen on the notion of a northern prime minister. “He’ll speak his mind, believe me,” he laughs. “I think he’ll get things done.”

Burnham’s priorities, in Colin’s opinion, should be “health, homelessness and housing bills. We’ve got a lot of homelessness in Manchester, but I go to Blackpool twice a year, and the homelessness there is crazy.” 

He praises Burnham’s A Bed Every Night scheme, which saw rough sleeping cut by two-thirds between 2017 and 2021, though it has risen again post-Covid.

Colin is hopeful that more politicians might enter his pantheon of regulars, which also includes actor Julie Hesmondhalgh. 

“She buys the Big Issue off me all the time!” he says – and her fundraising charity, 500 Acts of Kindness, bought him a new cooker in 2023. So, if parliament does make its way to Manchester in the near future, expectations are high. No pressure!

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