Andy Burnham and Wife Marie-France van Heel Attend First Labour Conference as PM Andy Burnham and wife Marie-France van Heel attend his first Labour conference as Prime Minister in Liverpool amid party unrest and economic growth debates. Andy Burnham and his wife Marie-France van Heel joined forces on the eve of his first Labour conference as Prime Minister in Liverpool, Merseyside, amid growing unrest among senior party figures over economic policy. The couple were warmly received by Labour supporters outside the conference hall. Van Heel, whom Burnham met while studying at Cambridge, recently resigned from her job as a marketing executive at Manchester-based electric vehicle charging network Be.EV to support her husband in Downing Street. She had worked there since 2024.For the conference appearance, she chose a burgundy faux leather midi skirt from Next priced at 46 pounds, with matching kitten heels and a bag, paired with a white shirt. This marked a shift from her previous designer look, which included a widely criticised 850-pound Victoria Beckham dress when Burnham first took office.Burnham wore his trademark all-black working man's outfit: 295-pound jeans, an 80-pound T-shirt, a 695-pound suede Harrington jacket, and 110-pound Adidas Topanga trainers. He greeted supporters and posed for selfies outside the ACC Liverpool.Conference Address Sets New DirectionSpeaking outside the conference hall in front of the party's Hope Again slogan, Burnham promised to set the UK on a new course, stating that the decade since the Brexit vote had resulted in too much drift and too much division. He said a line needed to be drawn under that period.Renewing his good growth in every postcode guarantee, he called the week important for setting out a new direction for the country. He expressed hope that people would feel able to have hope again that things will improve.Burnham described walking into his first party conference as leader and Prime Minister as a proud moment. He recalled that his grandad drove a lorry for Tate and Lyle up and down the Liverpool docks and wondered what he would make of the occasion.The Everton fan added that he loves coming to Liverpool on a Saturday, normally to support the Blues, but said everyone was supporting the Reds that day.Party Unrest Challenges Burnham's LeadershipBurnham faces growing unrest from senior party figures who have challenged him and publicly criticised each other. Former Business Secretary Peter Kyle, a supporter of Streeting, said the Prime Minister was not doing enough to boost economic growth.Kyle told the BBC that the Government needed to make more short-term decisions to boost growth, such as slowing the rollout of new workers' rights. He suggested honest conversations with unions about sequencing rights to get growth into the economy sooner.Former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner criticised the Home Secretary's plans to lengthen the time before foreign care workers could claim settlement rights. These internal tensions add to the challenges Burnham faces as he seeks to unite the party.Diplomatic Engagements and Future SummitsEarlier in the week, van Heel attended a lunch hosted by US First Lady Melania Trump while Burnham made his first official visit to President Donald Trump. She also met Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky's wife Olena and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's wife Diana at a meeting during the UN General Assembly in New York.Van Heel is said to be keen to get to know her counterparts ahead of the UK holding the G20 presidency next year and the G7 presidency the year after. Since arriving in Downing Street, she has accompanied her husband to the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the opening of the Bayeux tapestry, where she met the King and Queen and Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron.