Andy Burnham has accidentally renamed a Greggs favourite, after his fumbled description of it sent sales soaring at a Manchester branch.
Speaking to LBC’s Henry Riley, asked to name his usual Greggs order, Burnham replied: “The sausage, bean, and cheese thing.” Then he second-guessed himself: “Is that right? Yeah, something like that.”
Close enough. He meant the Greggs Sausage, Bean & Cheese Melt, a puff pastry bake with sausage meatballs, baked beans and melted cheese, currently £2. Greggs spotted the opportunity fast and adopted his description for a promotional rename, in-store screens now advertise it as “The Sausage Cheese & Bean Thing,” with a note identifying it as the prime minister’s choice.
Sales doubled near No 10 North
The publicity worked immediately. Staff at the Greggs on Heron Road, close to Burnham’s Manchester base known as No 10 North, said sales of the bake more than doubled on Wednesday morning. Manager Warren McCarrick said customers came in specifically wanting to try the PM’s order. “Sales have gone through the roof this morning, cheers, Andy,” he told LBC.
McCarrick said the shop decided to return the favour by using Burnham’s own name for it. Staff also delivered several to No 10 North directly, sparing him from having to join the rush he’d caused. Greggs is calling the surge the “Burnham bounce” and expects demand to stay high through the week. Whether the new name sticks beyond the promotion is unclear, Greggs’ official website still lists it under the standard Sausage, Bean & Cheese Melt name. The company describes it as sausage meatballs, beans and cheese in golden puff pastry, 456 calories, a detail that didn’t make it into Burnham’s endorsement.
Burnham’s whole Greggs thing
Burnham’s talked before about visiting Greggs and said queue conversations there can genuinely produce policy ideas, a line he’s used similarly about pubs, another setting he regularly frames as a useful way to hear concerns outside Westminster. It fits the political identity he’s built around Manchester, football, pubs and ordinary high-street businesses, an image that’s occasionally drawn criticism for being a bit too carefully “blokeish.” Greggs seems unlikely to worry about that debate while the tills are ringing.
Burnham’s also put pubs and high streets near the centre of his actual economic programme, proposing higher business rates on large warehouses to fund cuts for pubs and other businesses that draw people into town centres. His Manchester base is meant to make the same point structurally, that government doesn’t have to run entirely out of Whitehall, part of his wider pledge to move political power away from London.
None of that was actually under discussion when Riley asked him to name a pastry. What happened instead was a prime minister forgetting the name of his own Greggs order, and a company wasting no time turning it into a marketing campaign. The Sausage, Bean & Cheese Melt already had a loyal following. Burnham’s just given everyone else a much easier way to ask for it.
For the next few days, at least, “the sausage, bean and cheese thing” should do the job.
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