Andy Burnham has vowed to open a Downing Street team in Manchester as part of a plan he claims will oversee "the biggest rebalancing of power our country has ever seen". In his first speech since launching his bid to become prime minister, Burnham said the new 'No 10 North' unit would drive good growth in every postcode and redistribute power from Whitehall to local communities.
Speaking at the People's History Museum, with former mayoral colleagues Steve Rotheram, Tracy Brabin and Oliver Coppard in the audience, Burnham argued that Whitehall had "blocked" progress in Manchester. "It is time for Whitehall to accept that growth cannot be ordered from the top down – it can only be nurtured from the bottom up," he said. He did not take questions at the end of the speech, nor did he provide a detailed plan for his proposals.
“Andy Burnham promises No 10 North in Manchester, vowing biggest power rebalancing since war.”
The Labour MP for Makerfield, who is the sole candidate to replace Sir Keir Starmer and could become prime minister as early as 20 July, also promised the biggest council house building programme since the post-war period, a "complete rethink" of education, and cuts to welfare. He suggested regions would see greater public control of services such as water, energy and transport, and hinted at more devolution in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. "The people of Dundee and Bangor feel just as distant from Holyrood and the Senedd as they do from Westminster," he added.
But Burnham's devolution vision faces scepticism. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch claimed Burnham backed the policy because he "doesn't know what to do so he wants to pass the problem to someone else". And the history of devolution under Starmer has been fraught with complications. Starmer's 2024 manifesto promised to roll out devolution powers, but his plans for local government reorganisation have been described by one commentator as "quiet constitutional radicalism met with ever more farcical incompetence".
Under Starmer, large combined authorities were created, including one covering Norfolk and Suffolk — a "metro area" the size of Cyprus, with a single mayor overseeing 9,200 square kilometres. Another proposal would see a mayor covering both Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, despite historic rivalries between cities like Portsmouth and Southampton, where residents have been known to call each other "scum" and "skates".
Burnham, for his part, did not spell out exactly what powers would be given to different areas. He argued that distributing power across the country would "give Britain the circuit-breaker it needs". Whether his No 10 North can avoid the pitfalls that plagued his predecessor's devolution agenda remains an open question.