Burnham pledges sweeping devolution in bid for UK premiership

[LONDON] Andy Burnham will pledge the biggest devolution of power in England in modern times in his first major speech since confirming his intention to succeed Keir Starmer as prime minister.  

The former Greater Manchester mayor will set out on Monday (Jun 29) how he’d “lift Britain back up” by handing more decision-making powers to local authorities, overhauling procurement to boost British jobs and tackling youth unemployment.

Burnham, a longtime champion of decentralisation, is on course to become prime minister next month, just weeks after returning to national politics as a newly-elected member of Parliament. 

Last Monday, Keir Starmer bowed to pressure and announced he would step down as leader of the ruling Labour Party. The schedule to pick a successor could see Burnham, 56, installed as prime minister as soon as Jul 17, if no other challenger emerges.

Burnham is popular with voters, and his victory over Reform UK in the Makerfield by-election was more emphatic than expected. Supporters are hoping a Burnham government can repair the fortunes of Labour, which continues to lag behind Nigel Farage’s right-wing, anti-immigration party in national opinion polls. 

However, critics say that Burnham will run into the same problems faced by Starmer and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, who also promised to build more houses and infrastructure, create jobs and reform educational routes for young people – with limited results.

Earlier this month Reeves declared she had “unfinished business”, including handing tax-raising powers to local leaders, in what was seen as an attempt to align herself with Burnham.

Burnham, who has long argued that investment in the UK is disproportionately tilted toward London and the southeast, will deliver his speech at the People’s History Museum in Manchester, the city in northwest England he ran for almost a decade.

The former government minister will promise to give Britain “the circuit breaker it needs” and say that a generation of politicians including himself are responsible for the loss of public trust in politics, according to extracts released by his team.

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Key pledges include:

• “Good growth in every postcode”, replacing a centralised, top-down model with locally-driven economic growth
• Creation of a “No 10 North” to drive devolution and a 10-year mission to raise living standards through re-industrialisation, housing, infrastructure and reform of essential utilities
• Reform of public procurement to maximise support for British jobs and industry
• More work placements and apprenticeships. Education to be based on “true parity” between academic and technical training, ending the focus on the university route
• Drive to reduce the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training, building on the review carried out by former Health Secretary Alan Milburn

Senior Labour figures on Sunday insisted the party is united behind Burnham and dismissed the idea of a general election to secure a mandate for his policy platform.

“The public do not want a general election, and that’s not just my instinct. You can look at the polls that tell us the vast majority do not. They want us to get on with the job,” Housing Secretary Steve Reed told Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips.

The Conservative opposition accused Burnham of avoiding the most important issues facing the country.

“Andy Burnham’s big idea is to shuffle power between politicians. Not fix the welfare system. Not cut the taxes strangling working families and British business. Not fund the defence our country desperately needs,” Conservative chairman Kevin Hollinrake said in a statement. BLOOMBERG