Andy Burnham and Marie-France van Heel were greeted by party supporters before his keynote speech at the Labour conference in Liverpool on Tuesday. Burnham stated that his wife of 26 years is "forthright" and "Dutch, and they don’t hold back."
Recalling a past incident, Burnham recounted his wife telling him, "Oh, not again! They’ve told you twice. They don’t want you. Why again?" Marie-France van Heel quit her post as chief customer officer at Be.EV, an electric vehicle-charging network based in Manchester, to gain greater schedule flexibility.
Last week, Marie-France van Heel accompanied Burnham to the UN general assembly in New York. At the Labour party conference this week, she posed for photographs with the Labour Asians Society and attended a fringe event concerning apprenticeships.
Sources suggest Marie-France van Heel is expected to play a more significant role behind the scenes than Victoria, the wife of the previous prime minister Keir Starmer. Furthermore, Marie-France van Heel was a trustee at Plan International UK until July.
The UK is scheduled to host the G20 presidency next year, followed by the G7 presidency the year after.
