Andy Burnham, three weeks from becoming prime minister, gave his first speech as presumptive leader in Manchester – the city that served as his power base for a decade. At its heart was a radical vision: a new “No 10 North” in Manchester, which he said would have specific responsibility for the “biggest council housebuilding programme since the postwar period”. He vowed to give new powers to locally-elected leaders across the UK, including in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, calling it the “biggest rebalancing of power” in political history.
Yet Burnham also made clear he would not fully relocate to Downing Street. He plans to keep his main residence in Wigan, effectively running Britain part-time from the north. The speech was billed as economic – promising to raise living standards, reform business rates to support pubs, and hinting at “a bit extra” for rising costs – but Burnham declined to take media questions, leaving much unspecified.
“Andy Burnham, three weeks from power, vows No 10 North and 'biggest rebalancing of power'”
For all the ambition, the parallel with Clement Attlee’s 1945 government is striking. Attlee nationalised 20% of the economy and created the NHS at a time of crushing national debt. Burnham, like Attlee, sees state ownership as part of the solution to Britain’s economic woes. But he has yet to detail how he would fund or implement such a shift.
Those who know Burnham say his drive stems not from ambition but from a deep sense of unfairness. In a personal account, a colleague wrote: “What motivates him is much simpler … he sees unfairness and wants to do something about it.” That trait was forged during his response to the Hillsborough disaster, where he stopped to listen to families who had fought for justice for 20 years. But the same stubbornness that makes him effective with campaigners can frustrate colleagues.
Can Burnham deliver? A Channel 4 News debate pitted Avnee Morjaria of the left-of-centre IPPR North thinktank against Henry Hill, political editor of the conservative Critic Magazine, to assess whether his bold promises are achievable. The answer – with so few details on the table – remains unclear.