Andy Burnham says new No10 North will 'make power flow' to Yorkshire and rest of UK
Prospective prime minister Andy Burnham promised to end “politics as usual” to rescue a country which is “stuck in a rut”.
Andy Burnham has pledged to create a No10 North in Manchester, which will “make power flow” to Yorkshire and other parts of the country in the biggest transfer of control away from Westminster in modern times.
The prospective prime minister promised to end “politics as usual” to rescue a country which is “stuck in a rut”.
In his first major speech since Sir Keir Starmer announced he would be leaving Downing Street, Mr Burnham pledged to pull people together in the “broadest possible coalition” to revive hope across the country.
Mr Burnham said: “What hope can we have that it will be different this time? That is the question I would be asking if I was a voter right now.
“It is the one I want to answer as clearly as I can today, and in doing so give the new direction the country is looking for after 10 years of political turbulence since Brexit and 20 years of falling living standards since the 2008 financial crash.”
The Makerfield MP, who gave up being mayor of Greater Manchester to return to Parliament in a by-election earlier this month, said: “Westminster has not been working for people and it has not been working for a very long time. 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.”
Mr Burnham pledged to give “Britain the circuit breaker it needs by building a more collaborative politics, by taking power out of the centre and putting it in the hands of the people and places who can use it best”.
Central to this, was the former Greater Manchester Mayor’s commitment to moving part of the Prime Minister’s office to his home city.
Calling it No10 North, he said its job would be to “make power flow into” places like Yorkshire.
“No10 North will be the nerve centre of a rewired Britain,” Mr Burnham said.
“It will be the conduit through which we redistribute power and resources across the UK, it will coordinate all parts of government at a national and local level on a long-term economic strategy and help all places with new growth ambitions.”
Mr Burnham did not give many specifics about which powers he would devolve to mayors, other than around employment support saying: “This is the difference that the mayors can make - and in doing that we will reduce the welfare bill.”
He said different types of areas - such as rural, industrial or coastal - would get specific responsibilities to drive growth.
“We will make politics work for you and the place you live,” Mr Burnham said from the People's History Museum in Manchester.
“I know it can be done, because we have done it here.”
Drawing inspiration from Germany, he said No10 North would be “given a mission to strive for equivalent living conditions in all parts of Britain”
The department would also have three “clear tasks” of increasing public ownership of essential utilities such as water, energy and housing; reindustrialisation; and regeneration.
Like Sir Keir, Mr Burnham said he was on a “10-year mission to raise people’s living standards”.
“I know people can’t wait forever for change … I will do my very best to deliver it,” he added.
“And whilst not taking risks with the public finances, I will seek to give Britain some breathing space.”
Mr Burnham said he would not be announcing his Cabinet yet, but pledged to build “an inclusive team at the very highest level so that all parts of the party and the country can see themselves represented in it”.
He insisted his plans were consistent with the manifesto Labour campaigned on in 2024 despite being “the biggest change in our lifetimes to the way the country is run”.
In Westminster, Mr Burnham said he would reach out to other parties to create a “greater sense of unity” in place of the “fragmented, disjointed” political environment he said he had found on his return to Parliament.
Mr Burnham, dressed in a dark t-shirt and jacket rather than the usual politician’s uniform of a suit and tie, did not take questions from the journalists at the speech, leading to accusations he was dodging scrutiny of his plans.
The Makerfield MP is set to become Prime Minister on 20 July unless another Labour figure gains the support of 81 MPs and mounts a challenge.
Sir Keir has given Mr Burnham access to the civil service via the Cabinet Secretary, so he can brief them on his plans.