MANCHESTER, England — Born and raised in northern England, Andy Burnham moved to the generally more posh south to study English literature at the University of Cambridge, where one professor recalls him wearing a soccer jersey to class.

“I think that might be quite common on the streets of northwest England, but it’s not necessarily a common thing in a Cambridge college,” professor John Mullan told the Times of London. He recalled the young Burnham as a soccer-obsessed lad who recited Shakespeare and dated “the coolest girl in the college.” She is Dutch-born Marie-France van Heel, and the couple are now married.

The soccer jersey was an early example of the working-class identity that would later define Burnham in politics.

Now widely expected to succeed Keir Starmer as prime minister this month, Burnham, 56, often highlights his northern, blue-collar roots. Analysts say his upbringing and his time as mayor of Greater Manchester — which prides itself as the world’s birthplace of the working class, during the Industrial Revolution — have shaped his national policies. That background could also help his center-left Labour Party win back working-class voters, some of whom have shifted to voting for right-wing parties in recent years.

“I want to do whatever I can to make Labour a party that [people] can believe in again, a party that’s solidly on the side of working-class people,” Burnham told the U.K.’s Channel 4 News in May.

Early on, Burnham fought stereotypes of northern soccer fans

Then-Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Andy Burnham speaks at an official memorial event at Liverpool’s Anfield Stadium to mark the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster in which 96 football fans died.

Peter Byrne/PA Images via Getty Images

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Peter Byrne/PA Images via Getty Images

Born in a suburb of Liverpool to parents who worked as a telephone engineer and a receptionist, Burnham was raised in a village about halfway between there and Manchester. After graduating from Cambridge, he and van Heel stayed south, moving to London. Burnham was first elected to Parliament at age 31, with Labour, representing a northern district.

He served as secretary of state for culture, media and sports under Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and in 2009, was sent to Liverpool to give a speech on the anniversary of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, when nearly 100 soccer fans were crushed to death in an overcrowded stadium in northern England. It was the deadliest sports accident in British history. But the victims were stereotyped as hooligans, and many survivors and victims’ families felt the government had not done enough to investigate. Initially, the crowd heckled Burnham. Fighting back tears, he abandoned his prepared remarks, nodding his head as the crowd chanted for justice.