Just five months ago, Andy Burnham was blocked by Labour's ruling executive from standing for parliament. He retreated to his mayor's office in Manchester, and when economics editor Faisal Islam met him weeks later, Burnham outlined his response: not bitterness, but ambitious plans for his city region.
He wanted to appeal directly to Fifa to host the women's football World Cup final in 2035 Manchester instead of Wembley. "Imagine how electrifying that is for any girl growing up in the north of England," he said. He was joining forces with other mayors for a "Great Northern" Olympic bid across the north of England, and a plan to host the Ryder Cup in Bolton. Sports bodies needed "re-educating" about the rest of the country, he argued.
“Andy Burnham blocked from parliament five months ago, now PM, driven by Manchester's fastest-growing economy and 'Manchesterism'.”
These big, bold gestures are a byproduct of Manchester's status as the fastest-growing city economy in the country. The city has already poached the Brit Awards from London after half a century in the capital. Now, as Burnham prepares to become prime minister, the question is whether the same model can be applied to the whole nation.
Even before Burnham returned to parliament in June, there had been talk of "Manchesterism" as a political-economic philosophy offering a programme for national transformation, rooted in a critique of an unresponsive, over-centralised British state.
Manchester has a long history of blending the freest of free markets with a strong social spirit. Its cotton traders championed free trade and liberal economics, alongside the emergence of the co-operative movement, the trade unions and the Suffragettes. The Manchester Ship Canal, emblem of monopoly-breaking free trade, required local government intervention backed by workers.
For an understanding of contemporary Manchester, you need to go back to the summer of 1996. By then, Burnham had left the north-west. "I had to do what so many people of my generation, born in the 60s or 70s in the north-west of England had to do to get on in life," he said. "We had to go south." He was working as an MP's researcher.
That year, back in Manchester, the IRA detonated the largest bomb in the UK since World War Two, devastating the city centre. The reconstruction after the attack marked the start of Manchester's ascent from the doldrums of de-industrialisation. Now, with Burnham in No 10, Manchesterism faces its biggest test: can a philosophy born in a city shape an entire country?