Henry Zeffman: Andy Burnham offers a blueprint for his premiership

Image source, Getty ImagesByHenry ZeffmanChief political correspondentPublished21 minutes agoAndy Burnham tried and failed to become prime minister twice before. He is now three weeks away from moving into Downing Street. It was Burnham's decade away from Westminster as the mayor of Greater Manchester which ultimately delivered the prize which had previously eluded him. So it is little surprise that Burnham chose to give his first speech as the presumptive prime minister in Manchester. And it is little surprise that at the heart of Burnham's vision for the nation is using his approach in Greater Manchester - "Manchesterism" - as a blueprint for the rest of the country. Today offered more of a sense of what this would mean: principally a significant devolution of powers away from Westminster and to the kinds of office that less than two weeks ago Burnham still held. Take "Number 10 North", the new prime ministerial office based in Manchester whose creation was one of the most significant announcements of the speech. There are already lots of government offices outside of London, and under Rishi Sunak the Treasury set up a campus in Darlington. But what Burnham was describing here felt more significant than the relocation of staff. This No 10 North would have specific responsibility for the "biggest council housebuilding programme since the postwar period", he said, raising some questions about the role of the Ministry of Housing and perhaps suggesting that a wider shakeup of the machinery of government is in the offing. How exactly this will work would doubtless have been a subject for the media questions which Burnham declined to take. For all the vision, and do not underestimate how happy Labour MPs will be to hear a vision, there is plenty of detail to be filled in. As well as new powers for national civil servants based in Manchester, Burnham - as anticipated - vowed to give new powers to locally-elected leaders across the country, and he made clear that included new powers for leaders in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This, he said, would bring about the "biggest rebalancing of power" in political history. Burnham sets out plans to devolve power to regions with new 'No 10 North' in Manchester What are Andy Burnham's potential policies for No 10? Published4 days agoBurnham's people: MPs and advisers in line for a job if he gains power Published5 days agoThis was billed as an economic speech. There was a promise to raise living standards for everyone, a commitment to reform business rates in order to support businesses like pubs, and an intriguing if vague hint of giving people "a bit extra" to cope with rising costs. Yet it felt like at its core this was really a speech about power and where it is exercised. Of course power is partly an economic question, but the first arguments Burnham made for devolving power related to political culture rather than economic growth. In this broader critique of the "broken" Westminster system, Burnham attacked "finger-pointing", which he said was "destructive of what remains of public trust in politics". His call for a "more collaborative politics" - perhaps a hint at seeking cross-party talks on an elusive solution to the problem of social care - became an argument for why power must be localised. On his return to becoming a national politician, Burnham was at pains to praise the "positives in all places and all postcodes", saying he would help rural areas and boost coastal communities. And London, he said, is the world's greatest capital city. That may have been a response to the sprinkling of unease - no stronger than that - which is already being expressed by a handful of the many Labour MPs who represent seats in London and the south-east of England about Burnham's strong association with the north-west. There are some in Labour who look at the political and demographic trends and suggest that London and the south is now the Labour Party's true heartland, more than some of the seats where it traditionally was strongest. One MP who represents a seat in the north of England told me after the speech, which they generally liked: "I can see why southern MPs are worried." Early in his speech, Burnham remarked that Parliament seemed to be an unhappier place than when he was last an MP. A minister who served with Burnham in the New Labour years said to me recently that they expected the change in the experience of being an MP to be one of the biggest shocks for him. Public disaffection, social media and security threats have all contributed to a different atmosphere. Here, in a dark blue t-shirt, was an incoming prime minister palpably at ease with himself. For Labour MPs who have found government a slog and were so spooked by the opinion polls that they ousted a landslide-winning leader within just two years, if Burnham can simply make politics fun again he will earn their support.

Henry Zeffman: Andy Burnham offers a blueprint for his premiership

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Henry Zeffman: Andy Burnham offers a blueprint for his premiership

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