{"id":587609,"date":"2026-05-16T17:11:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T17:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/587609\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T17:11:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T17:11:10","slug":"andy-burnham-says-labour-must-put-energy-and-water-under-public-control-andy-burnham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/587609\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Burnham says Labour must put energy and water under public control | Andy Burnham"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andy Burnham has suggested that a programme of mass renationalisation would be at the centre of his policy platform if he succeeds Keir Starmer<\/a> as prime minister.<\/p>\n

The Greater Manchester<\/a> mayor is seeking a return to Westminster via a byelection in Makerfield. He has been widely expected to challenge Starmer for the Labour leadership if elected and is seen as the favoured candidate of the party\u2019s soft left.<\/p>\n

Labour has yet to officially select its candidate, but Downing Street has indicated it would not block Burnham\u2019s attempt to stand as it did in the Gorton and Denton byelection<\/a> in east Manchester this year.<\/p>\n

The party has been in turmoil since its poor performance in last week\u2019s local elections, with several government ministers, including the health secretary, Wes Streeting<\/a>, resigning this week. Others have privately advised Starmer to set out a timetable for his departure.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Channel 4<\/a> News, Burnham said the \u201cdeindustrialisation and privatisation\u201d of Britain had left areas like Makerfield \u201cwithout good jobs and people unable to afford the basics.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWe need a different path completely. What is that path? Put more things back under stronger public control: energy, housing, water, transport.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve done that with buses in Greater Manchester. I was the first to do it. Margaret Thatcher deregulated them \u2026 and then they just work for the private shareholders and not for the paying public.<\/p>\n

\u201cI put them back under public control with the \u00a32 fares, so you take that principle and apply it to energy and apply to the water \u2013 that\u2019s what I think we need to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe country gave away its control with basic things that people depend upon every day and that was a big mistake in my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burnham previously represented the neighbouring constituency of Leigh, before being elected as Greater Manchester mayor in 2017<\/a>. He has been trying to plot a route back to parliament for months, with supporters approaching several MPs in the north-west in an attempt to reinstate him in the Commons.<\/p>\n

A possible path to Westminster emerged on Thursday when the Makerfield MP, Josh Simons, announced he would stand aside to enable Burnham to contest a byelection<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Burnham said he and Simons had \u201cboth felt the frustration of facing a Westminster system that just does not have answers for these streets, these communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burnham added: \u201cWe both feel a big change is needed and I wouldn\u2019t have just gone anywhere [to] carpet bag, you know, any old constituency. It matters to me that I have a connection \u2013 I live literally on the edge of this constituency my kids went to school a few hundred yards down the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know people here, I know how they think, how they feel. I want to do whatever I can to make Labour<\/a> a party that they can believe in again, a party that\u2019s solidly on the side of working-class people.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, if officially selected as Labour\u2019s candidate, Burnham faces a strong challenge from Reform UK, who won nearly 50% of votes in the constituency\u2019s eight council wards in last week\u2019s elections.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cOur party needs to do better \u2026 I\u2019m going to be really honest about that on doorsteps.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to spend my time point-scoring. I would say no, I\u2019m hearing you. We\u2019re going to really change things and put the country on a different path.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to talk seriously about reindustrialising the north-west, getting those good jobs, changing education so it\u2019s not all about the university route but it\u2019s also about the technical paths for kids to get into those good jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a separate interview, Burnham told the BBC that deindustrialisation had begun in the 1980s when some central figures in Reform were \u201carch-Thatcherites.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThat was devastating all of those years ago and communities were left with nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Burnham has suggested that a programme of mass renationalisation would be at the centre of his policy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587610,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-587609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}