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Andy Burnham welcomed fellow Evertonian Mark Carney , the prime minister of Canada, to the club’s stadium to watch a Carabao Cup tie on Wednesday night. Mr Burnham held a bilateral meeting with Mr Carney at Everton ’s Hill Dickinson Stadium in Liverpool before the team’s third-round game with Wolves. Posing for photo at the start of the meeting in the directors’ clubroom, Mr Burnham said: “What a real life privilege this is for me to welcome the prime minister of Canada.
“We share so much, Mark, we have a few Liverpool connections, Ireland connections, but, of course, Everton connections and it’s going to be a special occasion.” The evening was special for a “personal reason”, he said, as there was a tribute to his father Roy, who died earlier this week and had been suffering from Alzheimer’s. A message about the death of Roy Burnham, the father of Prime Minister Andy Burnham, is displayed on the screen during the Everton v Wolverhampton Wanderers match (PA) His photo was shown on the stadium’s big screens before the match and again at half-time as a memorial. Both prime ministers wore Alzheimer’s Society forget-me-not flowers on their lapels and Mr Carney said that he had also lost his father to the disease.
He told Mr Burnham: “I know that struggle.” The first Everton match he attended was the 1989 FA Cup semi-final, he said – a game which Mr Burnham has also spoken about attending as it happened on the same day as the Hillsborough disaster. Mr Carney commended Mr Burnham for his role in “bringing justice and closure” following the tragedy, in which 97 Liverpool fans died. Both men wore forget-me-not flower lapel pins which recognise Alzheimer’s support Mr Burnham described the former Bank of England governor as a “great progressive leader” and said there were opportunities for them to work together on defence and AI.
He said: “It’s just so good for me to think I will have somebody to talk to and commiserate about Everton at a G7 meeting. “You are so welcome to Liverpool and obviously to your beloved club, to the new home of Everton.” Mr Carney said there was an opportunity for the countries to “build together” in areas including values around AI. He said: “It is an honour to be here.
It is a pleasure to be here.” After the meeting, which lasted about 45 minutes, the pair both donned blue and white Everton scarves and took their seats in the stands to watch the match. Mr Carney and Mr Burnham are both Everton supporters (Reuters) They greeted supporters as they made their way to their seats, shaking hands and posing for photos. The pair could be seen hugging and celebrating as Everton scored the only goal of the match in the 80th minute.
Mr Burnham invited Mr Carney to watch a game together when the pair spoke in July, shortly after he became prime minister. The Canadian adopted Everton as his team after moving to the UK. Since moving into No 10 in July, lifelong Toffee Mr Burnham has continued to be a regular attendee at games at the Hill Dickinson Stadium, which opened in 2025.
In a readout of their meeting, a Downing Street spokesperson said: “The leaders began by underscoring the close co-operation between the UK and Canada and emphasised the importance of building similar close ties with European partners, particularly on trade and defence. “The prime minister welcomed Canada becoming the first observer nation in the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) this summer, as the leaders discussed strengthening defence co-operation and the complementary work of the Multilateral Defence Mechanism and the Defence Security Resilience Bank.” The GCAP is a joint initiative between the UK, Japan and Italy to develop the next generation of stealth fighter jets. Mr Carney and Mr Burnham also discussed the opportunities and challenges of AI.
Source: The Independent
