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Sat in a greasy spoon cafe in South London, Andy Burnham is more than 200 miles from the kitchen table where he forged his political beliefs.

But the man fighting to become the next leader of the Labour Party could not feel more at home.

Could this proud Scouser and Everton fan win over the nation, including the London elite, and walk into No10 in five years’ time?

“A regional accent is not a barrier to success,” says Mr Burnham as he tucks into poached eggs, bacon and toast, adding a big dollop of brown sauce.

(Image: JOHN ALEVROYIANNIS)

Armed with a knife and fork – to defend himself against a Miliband-style bacon sarnie moment – he continues: “There’s been a train of thought in the Labour Party for the last 20 years or so that if you want to beat the Tories you have to look like them and sound like them.

“I don’t think that’s the case at all.”

Earlier this week, Mr Burnham was at a black-tie CBI dinner at the ­Grosvenor Hotel on London’s Park Lane with a host of big names from politics and business.

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But the bookies’ favourite for the Labour top job is just as comfortable mingling with captains of industry at a five-star hotel as he is in Parma’s caff on Kennington Road.

After 15 years in Parliament he says he’s his own man, comfortable with his status outside the Westminster bubble and proud of keeping his feet on the ground.

His firm belief is that an accent can actually help project a Scouser – or anyone else with a regional twang - into No10.

(Image: JOHN ALEVROYIANNIS)

He says: “I’ve seen for myself the way the political and media elite look down on people with accents.

“An accent is a mark of authenticity. Are you a genuine person? Are you comfortable with who you are? Or are you trying to be something you’re not?

“I think it’s a myth that someone with a northern accent would struggle with southern voters. People are interested in hearing from someone who’s genuine – no matter what they sound like.”

Since coming to Westminster, via Cambridge University, Mr Burnham has kept his middle-of-the-North-West-with-a-bit-of-Scouse accent intact.

And he’s confident that what people want from politics now is authenticity.

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So I put him on the spot with series of questions cunningly designed to uncover any false northernness.

Chips and gravy?

“Even though I’m Shadow Health ­Secretary I will have that dish about once a month.”

Bitter or lager?

“It used to be bitter but I must admit I’ve switched to lager now. I still have the odd pint of bitter if it’s a good one, though.”

Hmm. Sounds a bit southern. OK, what about the Stone Roses?

“Of course. But the best band around in Manchester at the moment is the Courteeners. When I was coming back from the Andrew Marr show the other weekend I was listening to them on the train.

“They’ve got a song called Take Over the World. It’s a bit of an unfortunate title – that’s not why I like it. But it’s got a line in there that I really like.”

At this point - and I will retain the interview tape for future use – Andy Burnham sings me a bit of a Courteeners song.

All I can say is it’s a good job he’s going for the Labour leadership and not BGT.

poll loading Who should be the next Labour leader? 1000+ VOTES SO FAR Andy Burnham Yvette Cooper Liz Kendall Mary Creagh Other name

But the line is great: “I’m only a paperboy from the ­North West. But I can scrub up well in my Sunday best.”

“It just struck me. I’m a paperboy from the North West,” Mr Burnham explains. “I had a couple of rounds when I was a kid. A lot of it was uphill, like the Hovis advert.”

He is proud of his roots and his ­community and it’s clear when he talks about them they ­influenced a lot of his politics growing up.

But it sounds more down to earth than the Milibands debating Marx at the kitchen table. His mum and dad are both staunch Labour – him on the left and his mum slightly right of centre.

Mr Burnham says his views are ­probably closer to his mum’s – although he still teases her about her decision to vote SDP in 1983.

It was from his mum that he learned a family story about social mobility.

His grandma Kitty lived in inner-city Liverpool and “had a bit about her”. She worked as a cleaner, a cook and in a brewery – anything to keep working.

But in the fifties, a new set of semi-detached houses sprang up on the Old Roan estate in Aintree. Without telling anyone she trudged across fields to put down a deposit on one of them.

Mr Burnham says: “That was the kind of person she was – it was about trying to move up in the world, to make

things better for her kids.”

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Kitty had always intended that the house she worked so hard to buy should be passed down to him and his brothers.

Mr Burnham says: “In the end it didn’t matter. The cost of her being in care whittled away at what she had earned. It made me ­determined to do ­something about the way elderly people are looked after in this country.

“If we are asking about what Labour is for now then it’s about the ­aspiration of people being able to pass on what they’ve worked so hard for.

“That’s a ­fundamental human thing. That’s fair.

“I want to set out a simple, clear message. The theme of my campaign is simple. Helping ­everybody to get on.”

He believes Labour should steer away from the “politics of envy” that some felt were Ed Miliband’s downfall.

Mr Burnham says: “ The principle of mansion tax is not a bad thing.

“But the name conjured up the politics of envy which I think was a mistake.

“People didn’t know the thresholds. They just heard ‘tax on bigger homes’ and rejected it. I want to look at how you rebalance tax in this country.

"It needs to go away from young people trying to make their way or businesses that are growing and more towards ­accumulation of wealth.

“The burden falls on people who are trying to make their way.”

(Image: Rex)

On the issue of immigration, he says his view is “free to work, not free to claim”.

Mr Burnham continues: “We have to address the problem where companies are bringing in people en masse from other countries.

“What they often do is employ them from their country of origin so they don’t pay the minimum wage. Free movement is being exploited in some workplaces and communities.

“If you’re working here you have to be paid the minimum wage.

“I’d go further than that and say that people should get the going rate. It would stop plasterers, plumbers, brickies being undercut.”

Mr Burnham vows not to accept any union money as he stands in the leadership race and also distances himself from the New Labour days.

He declares: “I’m not tangled up in the Blair/Brown stuff. I’m free of that.”

(Image: PA)

However, he does admit the last Labour government made some mistakes with the economy.

He says: “I accept we let the deficit get too big. I was Chief Secretary when we did a spending review in 2007.

“My instruction was to bring the deficit in and cut departmental spending to below growth. In hindsight we should have done that a couple of years earlier.

“The deficit was too high going in to the crash and it compounded things.

“What I don’t accept is that Labour was profligate over 13 years.

“We ran surpluses in four out of our first five years in government – more than the Tories did in 18 years.”

Mr Burnham says his family – wife Marie-France and their three children – are now ready for what could be a bruising leadership campaign.

He will face colleagues Yvette Cooper, Liz Kendall and Mary Creagh. And Mr Burnham thinks his independence will give him the edge – as well as his straight-talking, man-of-the-people manner.

The MP for Leigh in Greater Manchester adds: “I think people who still know me will tell you that I can talk to anyone. I was at the CBI dinner this week. On Sunday I’m going to Everton vs Spurs at ­Goodison.

“I get involved in all the banter. You can imagine how that gets sometimes, but that’s what I like. Occasionally I get a bit of grief and someone will want to come and have a go about something.

“But I like that too. It’s important. When people are discussing the future of the party now they talk about moving it to the left or right. But my ear is tuned to what people are actually saying.

“And that’s what’s behind my politics. That’s what’s important.”

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What our readers say: Set the agenda on social justice, Andy

Pensioner Rick Mills, 62, from Hull, says:

I think he seems to be working to the Tory agenda, talking about small businesses, immigration and aspirations. That is letting them run the agenda and I would like to see the next leader of the Labour party set the agenda. I would like Andy Burnham to go on the offensive about equality. I think his approach to immigration is OK. He talks about Mansion Tax, not liking its name and the politics of envy, but he should be talking about social justice.

Harriet Clugston, 22, a Derbyshire student, says:

He says he isn’t a Blairite or a Brownite, but he has also spoken about how Labour needs to return to 1997 and connect with people and so he sounds like a Blairite to me. His accent could be a good thing. I think the most disillusioned people come from run down parts of the North and it might help him connect to people. He needs to help the most vulnerable people and to do that he has to have anti-austerity policies, like scrapping the Bedroom Tax. He has a point on the mansion tax but I don’t think left wing people are going to be on board with what he is saying. What is he going to do about big business and tax evasion?

Bradford student and mum Sophia Yaqoob, 23, says:

Where you come from or how you talk doesn’t matter to me. I just want someone who will do good. I am glad he wants to give everyone a helping hand. This country should make sure people are confident they will be cared for whether or not they have money in the bank. What he says about immigration is good. I do think some people come here for benefits. If you go to countries like Australia you have to prove what you can do for that country. We should do something similar.