{"id":664036,"date":"2026-06-29T08:49:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T08:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/664036\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T08:49:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T08:49:12","slug":"uks-likely-next-leader-andy-burnham-to-unveil-economic-devolution-plans-elections-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/664036\/","title":{"rendered":"UK\u2019s likely next leader Andy Burnham to unveil economic, devolution plans | Elections News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Frontrunner to be next PM expected to announce a 10-year mission to raise living standards.<\/p>\n

Published On 29 Jun 202629 Jun 2026<\/p>\n

Andy Burnham, the frontrunner to become the United Kingdom\u2019s next prime minister, will unveil his economic agenda in his first major policy speech since Keir Starmer announced his resignation last week.<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s address at a museum in Manchester is being seen as Burnham\u2019s pitch to lead the country after a decade away from Westminster.<\/p>\n

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Burnham, who returned to Westminster earlier this month after winning a parliamentary \u2060seat, is the only declared candidate to replace Starmer, and if there are no other challengers he could take office by mid-July.<\/p>\n

Starmer announced he would quit two years after winning a large Labour majority as his popularity sank.<\/p>\n

Burnham, who rose to prominence as mayor of Greater Manchester and has been dubbed \u200cthe \u201cKing of the North\u201d, will use Monday\u2019s speech to make devolving power to regions and local communities his flagship proposal.<\/p>\n

He will also commit to a 10-year mission to raise living standards through reindustrialisation, housing, infrastructure and reform of utilities. The focus would be not just on who governs the UK, but on changing how it is governed, his office said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAndy wants communities in every part of Britain to seize their own agenda,\u201d Labour Deputy Leader Lucy Powell told the BBC.<\/p>\n

\"LONDON,Housing Secretary Steve Reed leaves Downing Street after a cabinet meeting [File: Leon Neal\/Getty Images]\u2018Manchesterism\u2019 to guide 10-year mission for growth<\/p>\n

A pro-business socialist from Labour\u2019s \u201csoft left\u201d, Burnham has sought to calm markets by backing the government\u2019s current borrowing limits.<\/p>\n

Housing Secretary Steve Reed told Sky News that Burnham was \u201ccommitted\u201d to the manifesto that delivered Starmer\u2019s large majority two years ago and would keep Labour\u2019s fiscal rules, including balancing day-to-day spending and cutting debt.<\/p>\n

He brands his approach \u201cManchesterism\u201d \u2013 business-friendly socialism opposed to trickle-down economics and neoliberalism. He wants to move some government operations to Manchester and favours greater \u201cpublic control\u201d of transport, water and energy.<\/p>\n

He also backs cuts to business rates for pubs and music venues.<\/p>\n

\"BritishKeir Starmer and wife Victoria outside No 10 after announcing his resignation [Toby Shepheard\/Reuters]Fiscal pressures remain<\/p>\n

If he takes office, Burnham would be the UK\u2019s seventh prime minister in a decade.<\/p>\n

But fiscal pressures will be a constraint, with the UK economy struggling from the impact of the war in Ukraine and the US-Israel war on Iran.<\/p>\n

Burnham once said the government should \u201cget beyond this thing of being in hock to the bond markets\u201d, but later said he was misrepresented.<\/p>\n

His choice of finance minister will be closely watched as a sign of how left-wing his government could be. United States President Donald Trump called Burnham \u201cextremely liberal\u201d and unlikely to open the North Sea to oil and gas drilling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Frontrunner to be next PM expected to announce a 10-year mission to raise living standards. Published On 29…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":664037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[461,59,80,57,58,50,229,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-664036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-elections","tag-gb","tag-government","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664036","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=664036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}