Keir Starmer has announced he will stand down as prime minister after months of intense pressure from Labour MPs, paving the way for the UK’s seventh prime minister in 10 years. The decision, two years after his historic election victory, immediately thrusts the party into a leadership contest – one in which the overwhelming favourite is Andy Burnham, the Makerfield MP who now plans to move parts of the No 10 operation to Manchester.
Burnham, who could enter Downing Street as soon as next month, will next week give his first major policy speech since winning the Makerfield seat. In it he is expected to announce that he wants to transfer parts of the prime minister’s office to the north as part of measures to devolve power away from London. The move, first reported by the Financial Times, is to be included in a speech laying out how he plans to deliver the radical devolution he has promised.
“Andy Burnham plans to move parts of No 10 to Manchester as Keir Starmer steps down”
The former health secretary and Greater Manchester mayor has long argued that the UK’s regional inequality – some of the worst of any developed country – is in part because political power is highly centralised in London. He has promised to govern according to a “Makerfield test”, under which policies are measured against how they would affect his new constituents. In a book published with the Liverpool mayor, Steve Rotheram, two years ago, he called for a “basic law” that would require the government to equalise living standards across the country.
It is not clear, however, whether Burnham intends to follow the advice of one of his economic advisers, the former Bank of England economist Andy Haldane, who has called for splitting the Treasury and creating a new growth ministry in the north. A spokesperson for Burnham declined to comment.
The news comes as Starmer’s departure ends a premiership that lasted only two years. The Guardian’s political correspondent Aletha Adu noted the intense pressure from Labour MPs that prompted his decision to step away. With the former health secretary Wes Streeting having confirmed he will not run for the Labour leadership, Burnham is the clear frontrunner.
Successive prime ministers have complained that 10 Downing Street is not suitable as the hub of a modern government. Burnham’s plan to shift parts of the operation to Manchester would represent a dramatic break with tradition – and a tangible step toward the devolution he has championed.