Angela Rayner has said the next prime minister must go further in giving power to communities, as she backed Andy Burnham’s “vision” for devolution – while suggesting the Labour government under Sir Keir Starmer has “too often left the impression” it was “defending the status quo rather than challenging it”. In a speech on Wednesday, the former deputy prime minister argued it is a “time for boldness” as Labour would not defeat the challenge from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK “with caution”. Her remarks came after senior minister Darren Jones said he liked the idea of “No 10 North” put forward by Burnham, who is the favourite to replace Sir Keir as prime minister when the Labour leadership contest concludes later this month.
Burnham, launching his bid on Monday, promised the biggest “rebalancing of power our country has ever seen”, including a new Downing Street team based in Manchester to help deliver his aims. His core pledge: devolve power to local communities away from senior civil servants in Whitehall, which he said had “blocked” progress in Greater Manchester where he had been mayor. “It is time for Whitehall to accept that growth cannot be ordered from the top down – it can only be nurtured from the bottom up,” Burnham said. Rayner, speaking at an event for the New Economics Foundation think tank, highlighted her own efforts to further devolve power but said there needs to be “much deeper cultural changes” in central government. “Whitehall empires hoard their own power,” she said, adding that “we must rewire England by devolving power and money to the country as a whole”. She cited moves to give English regional mayors the power to charge a tourist tax, and raised transport, children’s social care and derelict buildings as areas where mayors should be backed.
“Angela Rayner backs Andy Burnham's devolution vision but warns Labour must stop defending the status quo.”
Yet the outgoing PM’s own devolution agenda has been mired in controversy. Keir Starmer, a “sober, plodding proceduralist” by contrast to the instinctive Burnham, had promised in 2023 to turn “take back control” from a slogan into a solution. Instead, his flagship local government reorganisation – which streamlined councils and introduced more metro mayors – has been marked by what critics call “farcical incompetence”. From 2028, the largest city-region in Europe will be the combined “metro area” of Norfolk and Suffolk, a single mayor overseeing 9,200 square kilometres – six times larger than Greater London and roughly the size of Cyprus. Even more absurdly, a single mayor is proposed to cover the whole of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, despite the historic rivalry between Portsmouth and Southampton – cities 17 miles apart with almost 1,000 years of separate history. In Portsmouth, the nickname for Southampton residents is “scum”; those in the home of the Royal Navy are called “skates”.
Rayner acknowledged the challenge ahead, saying the “devolution revolution” will only “reach its full potential if central government changes too, with No 10 driving it as a core mission”. But as Burnham prepares to take over, the question remains: can he succeed where Starmer failed, or will the new boss be the same as the old boss?