Just five months ago, Andy Burnham was blocked by Labour's ruling executive from standing for parliament. Now, as he prepares to become prime minister, the question is whether his signature philosophy – 'Manchesterism' – can work for the whole country.
When I met Burnham in his Manchester mayoral office weeks after that setback, he was nursing his disappointment with bold plans for his city region. He told me he wanted to appeal directly to Fifa to host the final of the women's football World Cup in 2035 in Manchester instead of Wembley. 'Imagine how electrifying that is for any girl growing up in the north of England,' he said.
“Andy Burnham, blocked from parliament five months ago, now prepares to apply his 'Manchesterism' model to the UK.”
He was also joining forces with other northern mayors for a 'Great Northern' Olympic bid, and a plan was afoot to host the Ryder Cup in Bolton. Sports bodies needed 're-educating' about the rest of the country, he said. Manchester has already poached the Brit Awards from London after half a century in the capital.
These big, bold gestures are a byproduct of Manchester's status as the fastest-growing city economy in the country. Even before Burnham returned to parliament in June, there has been talk of Manchesterism as a political-economic philosophy offering a programme for national transformation, rooted in a critique of an over-centralised British state.
The city has a long history of blending free markets with a strong social spirit. Manchester's cotton traders championed free trade and liberal economics, while at the same time the co-operative movement, trade unions and the Suffragettes emerged. The Manchester Ship Canal, an emblem of monopoly-breaking free trade, required local government intervention backed by the workers.
But contemporary Manchester's ascent can be traced to the summer of 1996. By then Burnham had left the north-west. He told me how after graduating in the early 1990s, all he could get was an unpaid reporter role on the Middleton Guardian. '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.'
That year, back in Manchester, the IRA detonated the largest bomb in the UK since World War Two, devastating the city centre. The reconstruction in the aftermath marked the start of Manchester's climb from the doldrums of de-industrialisation.
Now, as Burnham prepares to take the model of Manchesterism to No 10, the question remains: can the city that rebuilt itself from rubble and ambition serve as a template for the entire UK?
