The pair embarked on a relationship, yet during this period, she sought his blessing to appear on the hugely popular TV programme Blind Date. Burnham reluctantly gave his consent and later confessed to watching the show from behind the sofa. Van Heel, widely known as Frankie, chose to go on a date with 'Will from Surrey', who turned up wearing a red sweatshirt and dungarees. Presenter Cilla Black told van Heel: "I used to like Andy Pandy - and you've got a real live one.", reports the Express.
Before their date, van Heel posed a question to Will about his shower habits.
"When I'm in the shower I generally make up poems and short stories," he said. "Oh Frankie, oh Frankie, your name is quite cranky, pick me for your Blind Date and there'll be no hanky-panky."
She then asked: "What would you do if you were my first taste of British men?".
Will responded: "You give me half an hour and I'll give you the best time of your life."
Thankfully for Burnham, her date with Will in Gibraltar proved to be a catastrophe, with cameras capturing him dismissing her as a "cold fish", while van Heel even hurled a cushion at him. She wed Burnham in 2000 and the couple went on to have three children together.
Burnham is entering parliament "with a lot of support", according to one of Sir Keir's closest allies.
Lord Hermer told GB News: "It wasn't an individual who won the last election. Of course, Keir led us through it incredibly successfully, but it was a party manifesto.
"It was the Labour Party that got elected. It was individual MPs within the parliamentary Labour Party. I'd say about Andy, which is, I'm not sure I agree with you that he's unknown in this country, I think he is very well known.
"I think he is coming in with a lot of popular support, and as Keir said at the lectern, and again, this is a measure of the Keir Starmer I know.
"Keir certainly, I can speak for myself, I can speak for all my colleagues, whoever becomes the next leader of the Labour Party, the next Prime Minister, will have our wholehearted support because the challenges we all face as a country demand it."
