Andy Burnham could be in Downing Street as soon as 20 July, after becoming the sole Labour MP standing to replace Sir Keir Starmer. The former Greater Manchester mayor, who returned to Parliament after nearly a decade away, has promised the biggest-ever “rebalancing of power” away from Whitehall, branding the UK one of the “most over-centralised countries in the world”. In his first speech since launching his leadership bid on 29 June in Manchester, he outlined plans for a new No 10 unit based in Manchester tasked with giving English regions more control over housing and transport, and extending devolution “deeper down” in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Government departments, he said, should support local councils and regional strategic authorities with “staffing and resources”. Burnham also wants to enable all parts of the UK to take “greater public control” of water and energy sectors, with 10-year plans to reduce costs, pointing to Greater Manchester’s bus franchise model. He has stopped short of full nationalisation, though he has backed public ownership for debt-laden Thames Water, a move already on the cards after the government objected to a proposed rescue deal in June.
Yet Burnham’s domestic focus will collide with the inescapable demands of global leadership. He has argued that Starmer spent too much time abroad during his two years as prime minister and plans to avoid the same profile. But Starmer, according to the New Statesman, has pointedly suggested that Burnham may not find it so easy in practice, given the “intertwined nature of domestic and international affairs”. The conduct of foreign policy in advanced democracies is becoming more centralised, and national security is “the first job of every prime minister” and one of the few areas where sovereign decision-making is genuinely consequential. Should Burnham spend much time in the new “No 10 North” – let alone get to as many Everton games as Starmer did Arsenal – his diary will face formidable pressure. The first internal battle will be over whether he attends the UN General Assembly in New York in September, which clashes with the Labour Party Conference. Then comes the UN Climate Change Cop summit in Turkey in November. “Can we afford to cede the ground to the Greens or Lib Dems on climate, particularly if we’ve just decided to drill in the North Sea?” his team will ask. They will also raise the need for a visit to Ukraine before Christmas, lest he “risk losing a leadership role painstakingly built over the previous five years”, with a “slew of European leaders” heading to Kyiv for crucial talks. As Burnham prepares to take office, the question is whether his vision of rebalancing power can survive the gravitational pull of Westminster and the world.
“Andy Burnham could be PM by 20 July, vowing to rebalance power from Whitehall, but faces daunting foreign policy tests.”