Words by Emily Youlton, Senior Politics Producer
Andy Burnham has set out his plans to “fix politics” as he promised to “do things differently” in his first policy speech.
He still looks poised to succeed Sir Keir Starmer following his resignation as prime minister after continued pressure from the Labour Party following disastrous local election results.
The former Mayor of Greater Manchester won a crucial by-election in Makerfield, which had been triggered with the sole purpose of allowing him to run for the leadership as a sitting member of parliament.
In his first major speech, the ‘King of the North’ has now explained some ideas for how he would lead the Labour Party and the country.
As the UK has a parliamentary democracy, there will not be a general election just because there’s a new prime minister and some opposition have warned that if Burnham steers too far away from the manifesto that Labour were elected on, then he’d face increasing pressure to do something.
Speaking in Manchester, he set out his ideas for a “Number 10 of the North” and plans for increased devolution to reallocate spending to local authorities and mayors to make the decisions locally.
Burnham did not take questions from journalists following his speech, a decision criticised by many reporters as a way of avoiding scrutiny.
Here ITV News looks at the first of Burnham’s ideas and how it might impact the UK.
No 10 of the North
Burnham has always been clear that he supports greater devolution of power out of Westminster and into regions, and today he’s said he will create a “Number 10 of the North”.
The purpose of creating this Manchester-based operation will be to focus on making “power flow” into all regions, including London, and he called it “the nerve centre for a rewired Britain”.
He said: “The job of No 10 North will be to make power flow into the Midlands, into the South West, into the East of England and, yes, into London as I said before, as much as the North East, Yorkshire & the Humber and here in the North West.”
He claimed that the “the whole country suffers when the regions and nations are not meeting their potential” and promises that this move of power out of London will help to tackle this challenge.
Burnham said there was a disconnect with the civil service in Whitehall and said he was “worried” by what he found when in Westminster and wants to “bring about the biggest rebalancing of power our country has seen”.
He said: “It is time for Whitehall to accept that growth cannot be ordered from the top down. Instead, it can only be nurtured from the bottom up.”
Housing
It is not a shock that Burnham mentioned housing today, it’s an issue he has campaigned on before and was very likely to be included in his policies.
He suggested reforms to public housing stock citing the loss of “almost 1.5 million council homes since the 1980s”.
His solution is for his new northern bureau of No10 to “oversee the biggest council house building programme since the post-war period. We will use public land, vacant public land to reduce costs”.
He referenced the Finnish philosophy of “Housing First” saying “if you don’t give people a good home, what chance have they got of having a good life?”
Burnham believes that with good and stable homes, people rely less on health services and children can have a better education.
Public Control
The former mayor has long championed renationalisation and public ownership of essentials like transport and energy and repeated these calls today.
He said: “We will ensure all parts of the UK are able to take greater public control of essential services like water, housing, energy and transport, learning from the model of that has transformed our bus networks here in Greater Manchester.”
He has promised a 10-year plan to reduce the costs of these essentials, but the details of this plan were not fully explained.
As the Mayor of Manchester, Burnham created the Bee network, an arms length private company with public oversight, that has seen a joined up approach to the city’s transport system.
Young People
Burnham has seen success with policies benefitting young people in Manchester like free bus passes for under-18s and has previously suggested he’d like this to be more nationwide.
On Monday, he also called for education reform, saying: “We need a complete rethink of how we support the next generation to succeed.”
He called for an end to a focus on “the university route” and said focus should also be on “kids who want something different”.
Burnham is supportive of policies like the 45 day work placement designed to help tackle the current youth unemployment crisis. He also said that there needs to be mental health support provided in work for young people.
Burnham has already held talks with Alan Milburn, who is currently conducting a review into the topic of youth employment and has already found that there are over one million young people not in employment, education or training (Neet).
Cost of Living
Although not a main feature of the policies he’s announced, Burnham repeated statements he made while campaigning in Makerfield about people needing “a bit extra now to help with rising costs”.
He promised to not take “risks with the public finances” to deliver this, but it is not yet clear what he will do to “give Britain some breathing space” when it comes to the cost of living.
Local voices championed
A bold promise of “good growth in every postcode” was a focus of the speech, where Burnham is trying to appeal to the whole country, especially those outside of his native Manchester.
The ‘King of the North’ needed to show that he plans to improve things across the country and his No 10 of the North won’t just be focusing on that area.
He wants to continue devolution plans, answering “the call from Mayors” about devolution of employment support and extending powers in the nations of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.
Changes to parliament
Burnham also has plans to change parliament aimed at enabling MPs to represent their constiuency interests in a better way.
He proposed the removal of the whipping system, which is where parties push their MPs to vote in line with their policy or face penalties like removal from the party.
Recently, Labour suspended the whips from MPs who voted against their proposed welfare reforms, which eventually led to a revolt and the government backing down.
But with questions over whether removing the whip would let MPs vote with the best intention or just make his party ungovernable, this policy made be hard to put into practice.
Businesses
Burnham has promised reform of business rates to try and revive high streets and support pubs, and he talked about the social benefits of busy high streets, and does not want them to become a “marker of decline”.
Although he said he would cut business rates, it is not clear yet the funding model behind it.
He also said that the UK was innovative and promised to “back our scientists, technologists, entrepreneurs and creatives” as well as supporting regions to set “clear and credible industrial ambitions”.
He also pledged to change the “UK public procurement policy” saying that he wants to help “British-based suppliers become more stable and competitive”.
It seems that Burnham has set out his vision for “Manchesterism”, where local economies grow creating an overall economic benefit for the country, but it is unclear yet on all the details of how he will actually make it happen.
With the start date for his potential new job as prime minister set for July 20, the big picture speech may need some key details fairly rapidly.
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