Andy Burnham will promise to “lift Britain back up to where it should be” in what his team has billed as “his first major leadership speech” on Monday morning – but a former defence minister is waiting to hear the detail before deciding whether to challenge the Labour leadership favourite.
The new MP for Makerfield will deliver the address at the People’s History Museum in Manchester, pledging to “give Britain the circuit breaker it needs”. His inner circle describe it as “the foundational text” of his programme for government, though it is not expected to include detailed policy and Burnham is not expected to take questions afterwards – a move that may raise eyebrows given his lack of a mandate from the electorate. His team insist this won’t become “a pattern” of avoiding scrutiny.
“Andy Burnham gives first major leadership speech as ex-minister Al Carns waits to decide on challenging him.”
Central to his plans is handing more power to politicians beyond Westminster, in what would be “the biggest transfer of power out of Whitehall in modern times”, though it is not thought his ideas would match the creation of the Scottish and Welsh parliaments or the introduction of regional mayors. Instead, he is expected to argue that not enough has been done to empower politicians outside London. Allies of the former Greater Manchester mayor say his time in that job proved to him “how resistant Whitehall can be to devolution”. One “flagship proposal” is a “No10 North” – a unit based in Manchester to “drive devolution” and ensure “good growth in every postcode”. A source emphasised this would not favour the north of England alone. Burnham will also talk of “public control” of energy, water and transport, but a central question will be how much detail he offers on intervention versus nationalisation.
The Conservative chairman, Kevin Hollinrake, dismissed the plans as “the politics of distraction from a Labour Party that is deliberately avoiding the questions that actually matter”, accusing Burnham of not fixing the welfare system or cutting taxes.
Meanwhile, former defence minister Al Carns, Labour MP for Birmingham Selly Oak, has said he is waiting to hear Burnham’s economics speech before deciding on a leadership bid. “I’m not going to start jumping up and down until I’ve had a look,” Carns told BBC Politics Midlands. He said he wanted “really clear and concise outcomes” for where Burnham sees the country over the next decade. “We need to see a vision, we need to see the plan because unfortunately a vision without a plan is a dream,” Carns added, asking: “Is it the healthiest nation in Europe, is it adding a trillion pounds onto our GDP, is national security important?”
Carns, who resigned as Armed Forces Minister earlier this month over defence budget concerns, said the topic of defence was a “key factor” and that it was about “national resilience”. He said he would not cut welfare to fund defence, unlike Conservative MP Neil Shastri-Hurst, who told the programme his party would look at social security spending.
To enter any leadership contest, Carns would need nominations from 81 Labour MPs and endorsements from affiliates such as trade unions. Other leading figures, including Wes Streeting and Darren Jones, have already decided not to run, as momentum grows behind Burnham. Carns said he would wait for the speech to “see how that lands, let’s see how much that pulls everybody together”.