Blueprint Breaking down the vision for economy

Andy Burnham’s speech at Manchester’s People’s History Museum promised “good growth in every postcode”, focusing on a significant transfer of power out of Whitehall and promising a new economic vision. But what might this mean in practice?

- Richard Partington Jessica Elgot

Devolution

“It will be about offering new opportunities to extend devolution in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.”

What else would be at the heart of Burnham’s plans other than devolution? Burnham drew on his experience as one of the most powerful regional mayors to say that power was nowhere near adequate.

Britain is the most centralised G7 country for tax and spending policy, and is among the most economically unequal in the developed world.

The key to changing this will be a new hub for No 10 in the north - based in Manchester - but with the remit to redistribute power across the regions. Sweeping new powers including on tax, skills and industry would be devolved by default.

There was a nod to an idea too that Burnham has mooted in his book Head North - a German-style Basic Law - essentially a statutory right to equal living standards.

Westminster and Whitehall

“They require radical change if the country is to get back on track.”

Burnham, who has spent less than three days in Westminster since he was re-elected, said he was very concerned by the atmosphere he experienced as he met with groups of MPs - “a more fragmented, disjointed place than the one I left, and, frankly, unhappier”, he said.

His intention appears to be the opposite approach to Keir Starmer, whose strategists banned MPs from tabling amendments or voicing any public dissent. Burnham said he would do things differently, promising he would not be “using the whip system to create fear or close down debate” - though he stopped short of promising to abolish it.

That greater sense of unity in parliament would be a useful directive to Whitehall, he said, suggesting that he wanted to end the adversarial system in the civil service, especially departments versus the Treasury. Burnham and his ally Louise Haigh have previously expressed interest in the past about the prospect of splitting up the Treasury.