Burton-Sampson's personal website says his upbringing "in Liverpool in the 1980s in a one parent family during the Thatcher years was tough".[3] In his maiden speech he said, "I have been told many times in my life that I would never achieve my dreams. I was the boy from a single-parent family, brought up in social housing. I was the boy who looked different from all the other kids in school and was often harshly reminded of that fact."[4]
