Andy Burnham will set up No 10 North as the “nerve centre of a rewired Britain” to oversee a devolution of power and resources across the UK that he said would deliver the change the country desperately needed.
The prime minister-in-waiting said the Westminster system was “broken” and that a “more of the same” approach would neither improve living standards or restore people’s faith in how politics worked for them.
In his first speech since Keir Starmer announced he was standing down, Burnham repeatedly returned to the theme of a decade of “change” but also set out concrete policies to transform how the country works, beginning with overcoming Whitehall’s resistance to change.
No 10 North would have three “clear tasks” for devolution: to increase public ownership of essential utilities such as water, energy and housing; reindustrialise swathes of the country; and regenerate towns, prioritising places that had been left behind.
This would include overseeing the biggest council housebuilding programme since the postwar period, he said, as well as ordering Whitehall to back British firms bidding for public contracts – even if this cost taxpayers more.
However, Burnham acknowledged that “people can’t wait for ever for change”, as he hinted at an early cost of living support package once he made it to Downing Street. “I heard on doorsteps in Makerfield how people need a bit extra now to help with rising costs,” he said.
“I will do my very best to deliver it, and whilst not taking risks with the public finances, will seek to give Britain some breathing space as soon as I can. People need to be able to look forward to a night out or a holiday with the kids. People need hope.”
The new Makerfield MP, dressed in a dark T-shirt and jacket rather than the usual politician’s uniform of a suit and tie, is expected to become prime minister on 20 July, unless he is challenged for the Labour leadership. His promise of a “new direction” is at the heart of his offer to the country.
He told his audience at the People’s History Museum in Manchester: “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.
“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.”
Burnham, who served in the last Labour government and sat on the opposition benches until he became mayor of Greater Manchester, said his generation of politicians had to take responsibility for not being good enough.
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“Now that might matter less in a world where people’s lives are getting better, but when they are not, it is dangerous and destructive of what remains of cultural trust in politics,” he said. “We can’t go through another decade like the one we just had. We need a new determination to raise living standards … We need to change politics and we need to do it now.”
Burnham used his speech to once again reassure the markets that he was committed to sticking to the fiscal rules, after he suggested last year the UK was “in hock” to bond markets, adding that his programme was backed by “the discipline that comes from sound public finances”.
But despite speculation over his pick as chancellor, which would give the firmest indication yet over his direction of travel on the economy, he said he would not announce key cabinet positions until he was closer to power.
Instead, he said he wanted to establish a “broad church” from within the Labour party, after concerns the Starmer government had been too factional, and would reach out to other political parties to find “as much common ground as we can” to help deliver his 10-year plan for change.
Burnham said Whitehall had long been “too adversarial” and that different departments had wasted too much time fighting each other. “Let me say this very directly: the days of Whitehall fighting the devolution of power into the regions and nations are over for good.”
He said the UK needed “a complete rethink” about how to support the next generation to succeed, promising to expand technical education giving every young person a “clear path” into a reindustrialised Britain, and rebalancing the focus on the university route.
Echoing the words of John Lennon, Burnham asked people to imagine “hope in every heart” as he rounded off his pitch to be Britain’s next prime minister. “Imagine what things could be like if we succeed. Imagine what it would feel like to live in a country wired to work for ordinary people rather than against them,” he said.
