“What hope can we have that it will be different this time?” Andy Burnham asked the audience at the People’s History Museum in Manchester, dressed in a dark T-shirt and jacket rather than the usual politician’s suit and tie. It was his first speech since Keir Starmer announced he was standing down, and the prime minister-in-waiting had a clear answer: a “new direction” that begins with No 10 North.
Burnham, who is expected to become prime minister on 20 July unless challenged for the Labour leadership, vowed to set up No 10 North as the “nerve centre of a rewired Britain” to oversee a devolution of power and resources across the UK. The Westminster system, he said, is “broken”, and a “more of the same” approach would neither improve living standards nor restore people’s faith in how politics worked for them.
“Andy Burnham vows to set up No 10 North as nerve centre of a rewired Britain.”
He set out three “clear tasks” for his new devolution drive: increase public ownership of essential utilities such as water, energy and housing; reindustrialise swathes of the country; and regenerate towns, prioritising places that had been left behind. The plan would include overseeing the biggest council housebuilding programme since the postwar period and ordering Whitehall to back British firms bidding for public contracts – even if that costs taxpayers more.
Burnham, who served in the last Labour government and sat on the opposition benches until he became mayor of Greater Manchester, said his generation of politicians had to take responsibility for the change the country desperately needed. “Westminster has not been working for people and it has not been working for a very long time,” he said. “In fact, it is broken. And as a result, the country isn’t where it should be. It is stuck in a rut, and clearly we can’t go on like this.”
But he acknowledged that “people can’t wait for ever for change”, hinting at an early cost of living support package once he made it to Downing Street. “I heard on doorsteps in Makerfield how people need a bit extra now to help with rising costs,” Burnham said. “I will do my very best to deliver it, and whilst not taking risks with the public finances, will seek to give Britain some breathing space as soon as I can. People need to be able to look forward to a night out or a holiday with the kids. People need hope.”
In his 10-year vision to raise living standards, Burnham also promised to empower local government to take “greater public control” over energy, housing, water and transport, calling it the “biggest change in our lifetime”. The question now is whether a country that has heard such promises before will believe that this time really is different.