Angela Rayner has warned that the next prime minister must go further in devolving power to communities, backing Andy Burnham's "vision" – but critics say the outgoing Labour government's own devolution agenda has descended into farce, with a planned megacouncil the size of Cyprus.
Speaking at a New Economics Foundation event on Wednesday, the former deputy prime minister said it was a "time for boldness" and that Labour would not defeat Nigel Farage's Reform UK "with caution". She suggested the Starmer government had "too often left the impression" of "defending the status quo rather than challenging it".
“Rayner backs Burnham's devolution vision, but Starmer's plans for Norfolk-Suffolk mega-mayor and Hampshire tension attract criticism.”
Rayner's remarks came as Burnham, the favourite to replace Sir Keir Starmer as prime minister after his resignation last week, launched his Labour leadership bid on Monday. The Greater Manchester mayor promised the biggest "rebalancing of power our country has ever seen", including a "No. 10 North" team based in Manchester and a pledge to devolve power away from Whitehall civil servants who had "blocked" progress in his region. "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, who experienced "institutional resistance to fiscal devolution throughout" her time in office, said there needed to be "much deeper cultural changes" in central government. "Whitehall empires hoard their own power," she argued. "We must rewire England by devolving power and money to the country as a whole."
But the Starmer administration's own record on devolution has been heavily criticised. From 2028, the largest city-region in Europe is set to be a combined "metro area" of Norfolk and Suffolk, with a single mayor overseeing a territory of 9,200 square kilometres – roughly the size of Cyprus and six times larger than Greater London. The idea of Norwich as the administrative capital of a city-state eclipsing Madrid or Paris has been likened to an "Alan Partridge fever dream".
Almost as contentious is the proposal for a single mayor covering the whole of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Relations between the two historic cities of Portsmouth and Southampton – just 17 miles apart – have long been fraught. In Portsmouth, the nickname for Southampton residents is "scum"; those in Portsmouth are called "skates". The proposal has raised questions over whether two cities with almost 1,000 years of history can collaborate, especially after the uproar when Emirates sponsored the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth and planned to paint it in Southampton FC colours.
Senior minister Darren Jones has endorsed Burnham's "No. 10 North" idea but also urged the next prime minister to "strengthen the centre" by creating a department for the prime minister in London. Whether Burnham can avoid the same pitfalls that saw Starmer's "quiet constitutional radicalism" branded "farcical incompetence" remains to be seen.