Anyone curious as to what Burnham will do in Downing Street has to start here. The book even includes a 10 point plan, some elements of which will almost certainly be dropped but some of which will be at the core of the Burnham project.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1540.jpg\")
The Burnham\/Rotheram 10-point plan Photograph: Head North<\/p>\n
A \u201cBasic Law\u201d refers to a version of a law passed by Germany after West Germany and East Germany were reunified, saying all states in the country should have \u201cequivalent living standards\u201d.<\/p>\n
Burnham and Rotheram ended their book with an \u201cEpilogue to our Grandchildren\u201d. In it they said they hoped their ideas would \u201chelp build a movement of people over the next 25 years which will eventually change Westminster from the outside\u201d. They said they would like to think that by the middle of this century, \u201cthe end of our lives and the start of yours\u201d, that movement would be \u201cso big that real change would then be imminent\u201d.<\/p>\n
At the time they were writing Labour<\/a> was expected to win the 2024 general election, but most observers expected Keir Starmer to be reasonably secure for another 10 years. Burnham clearly did not think he would be the person implementing this agenda. Now, just over two years later, he does not have to leave it up to his grandchildren; he will be able to do it himself.<\/p>\n That is the background to today\u2019s speech by Burnham in Manchester. As Pippa Crerar reports, he will pledge to deliver \u201cgood growth in every postcode\u201d by overseeing a significant transfer of power out of Whitehall to local communities.<\/p>\n It is Burnham\u2019s first big speech as the presumptive next PM. Apparently he won\u2019t be taking questions from reporters because he wants the coverage to focus on the speech. It may turn out to be the most important political event of the week, and of course I will be covering it in detail.<\/p>\n Here is the agenda for the day.<\/p>\n Morning: Keir Starmer host a roundtable at Downing Street with the hospitality industry.<\/p>\n 10am: Kemi Badenoch<\/a> gives a speech in London,<\/p>\n 11.30am: Andy Burnham<\/a> gives his devolution speech in Manchester.<\/p>\n 11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.<\/p>\n 2.30pm: Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, takes questions in the Commons.<\/p>\n Afternoon: Starmer is meeting Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary general, in Downing Street.<\/p>\n If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (between 10am and 3pm), or message me on social media. I can\u2019t read all the messages BTL, but if you put \u201cAndrew\u201d in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.<\/p>\n If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X<\/a>, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.<\/p>\n I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can\u2019t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a004.58 EDT<\/p>\n Key events<\/p>\n Badenoch says Miliband ‘acting like Nigerian military dictators who ruined a lot of that country’s economic potential’<\/p>\n Q: You have called Ed Miliband a villain, and compared him to the Nigerian dictatorship. Why do you hate him that much? And is that language appropriate?<\/p>\n Badenoch said she did not approve of language policing. \u201cLet\u2019s stop worrying about hurty words and look at the people who are hurting in the country,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n She went on:<\/p>\n double quotation markI do feel very strongly about this issue. Many people know that my childhood was spent in Nigeria. Nigeria is an oil producing country that never had any electricity. Why? Because it had bad policies from military dictatorships, people who did not care what the country wanted.<\/p>\n They imposed socialism on the country. They took over all of the oil production. They had a national state oil producer and it failed.<\/p>\n Ed Miliband is actually doing the same thing. He wants more state control. He has terrible policies that are reducing our capacity, reducing our energy security.<\/p>\n So having lived under both, I think I\u2019m uniquely placed to make that comparison. Yes, Ed Miliband is acting like the Nigerian military dictators who ruined a lot of that country\u2019s economic potential and made it so much poorer and in some cases bankrupted the country.<\/p>\n Kemi Badenoch giving her speech today. Photograph: Dan Kitwood\/Getty ImagesShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a006.19 EDT<\/p>\n Asked if it was a mistake for the last Conservative government to impose a de facto ban on new onshore windfarms, Badenoch said that was a question Claire Coutinho, the shadow energy secretetary, could answer.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Q: What do you make of the revelation in the Spectator<\/a> that some Labour people are arguing that Andy Burnham would be the party\u2019s first female leader?<\/p>\n Badenoch replied:<\/p>\n double quotation markI don\u2019t know what to say. The idea that Andy Burnham is Labour\u2019s first female prime minister shows that that party still doesn\u2019t know what a woman is.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Badenoch claims Burnham backs devolution because he does not have answers and ‘wants to pass problem somewhere else’<\/p>\n Q: Are you opposed to devolution in principle?<\/p>\n Badenoch replied:<\/p>\n double quotation markDevolution is not a silver bullet. It is not an answer. It is a process. If you devolve to people who can\u2019t do the job, you just recreate the problem elsewhere and make it harder for central government to fix it.<\/p>\n How do we go about picking our mayors? If you are picking people who think is just a popularity contest or I\u2019m a Celebrity, they\u2019re not actually going to be able to do that job.<\/p>\n I think a lot of politicians hide behind devolution because they don\u2019t have any answers. So they said, \u2018Well, why don\u2019t we let local people sort it out?\u2019 But they don\u2019t give them the real tools, the power.<\/p>\n What\u2019s wrong with our country? We have, extremely high energy costs. What\u2019s a local mayor going to do about that?<\/p>\n We have seen so much go wrong because politicians have been outsourcing decisions, outsourcing responsibility to councils, to quangos, [to the] OBR. No one is making decisions.<\/p>\n And what I hear when Andy Burnham talks about more devolution is that he doesn\u2019t actually know what he wants to do, and so he wants to pass the problem somewhere else. We know what we want to do \u2026.<\/p>\n I think Andy Burnham is afraid of taking difficult decisions. He wants to be liked. He wants to be popular. But politicians who want popularity always end up running away from tough decisions. I\u2019m not scared of taking tough decisions.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a005.58 EDT<\/p>\n Badenoch says Tory mayors and councils won’t be using new powers to impose overnight visitor levy on tourists<\/p>\n Q: Can you guarantee that Tory mayors and Tory councils won\u2019t be using the new powers they have to impose an overnight visitor levy on tourists?<\/p>\n Badenoch replied:<\/p>\n double quotation markThis is not a policy that we support. If you can find a Conservative leader of a council who\u2019s doing that, send them my way and I will have a word.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Asked what she thought of Andy Burnham<\/a> not taking questions this morning, Badenoch said:<\/p>\n double quotation markAndy Burnham doesn\u2019t like questions. Nigel Farage doesn\u2019t like questions. Even Keir Starmer in parliament, he doesn\u2019t like questions here.<\/p>\n If you want somebody who can answer questions, please come to me. I will answer all of your questions.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Asked who Andy Burnham<\/a> should pick as his chancellor, Badenoch replied:<\/p>\n double quotation markI know that it should not be Ed Miliband. He is the single person who has done the most to deindustrialise our country and make us poorer. He should not be rewarded with an even more powerful job where he can completely bankrupt the country.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Asked about Burnham\u2019s plan to put part of the No 10 operation in Manchester, Badenoch said she did not think that was a good idea. She explained:<\/p>\n double quotation markAs a secretary of state, there were many times that I had to go to No 10 and then go into parliament. I wouldn\u2019t have been able to do that if I had to go up and down to Manchester at the same time.<\/p>\n We did have a second Treasury campus in the north. That was for civil servants. It was for other ministers. It was not for the prime minister.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Badenoch calls for Commons recess to be delayed so Burnham can address MPs as PM before September<\/p>\n Currently the Commons is due to rise for the summer recess on Thursday 16 July. Andy Burnham<\/a> is due to be named as Labour leader the following day, and he is due to become PM on the following Monday.<\/p>\n Badenoch said the recess should be delayed to allow Burnham to tell the Commons what he plans to do. She said:<\/p>\n double quotation markAndy Burnham should delay the summer\u2019s parliamentary recess by just a day or two \u2013 just a day or two \u2013 come to the house and tell us his plan for this country.<\/p>\n This is not a game. It should not be a soap opera. If he wants to be the leader of our country, it is time to start acting like it.<\/p>\n MPs are due to return to the Commons after the summer recess on 1 September.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Badenoch dismisses Burnham’s devolution agenda, saying it’s just ‘more public control, more regulation, more taxes’<\/p>\n Badenoch also claimed that Andy Burnham\u2019s devolution plans were not \u201csome radical new agenda\u201d, but just \u201cold hat\u201d.<\/p>\n She said Boris Johnson was also a former mayor who had a devolution agenda. Just as Andy Burnham wants to set up a No 10 in Manchester, under Johnson the Treasury opened a campus at Darlington, she said. She went on:<\/p>\n double quotation markBut Burnham\u2019s devolution agenda, unlike ours, is stripped of private enterprise and ownership. It is loaded with Labour\u2019s instincts \u2013 more public control, more regulation, more taxes, all of the very things which have caused the problems we have today.<\/p>\n They will mean more power taken away from parliament, but more and more government created all over the country, more politicians, more outsourcing of decisions to bodies with even less scrutiny and accountability.<\/p>\n If you look under the hood of Andy Burnham\u2019s proposals, you will find at their core, a mistaken belief, the belief that it is government that creates growth. It is not. It is business that creates growth.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a005.58 EDT<\/p>\n Badenoch claims Britain heading for ‘summer of chaos’ because of power vacuum in Downing Street<\/p>\n Kemi Badenoch has claimed that Britain is heading for a \u201csummer of chaos\u201d because there is a power vacuum in No 10.<\/p>\n In a speech this morning about Andy Burnham<\/a>, the Conservative leader said:<\/p>\n double quotation markBritain is heading for a summer of chaos. We have a caretaker prime minister, barely in office, definitely not in power. All major policy and spending decisions have been put on hold. The last defence secretary resigned because the money needed to keep Britain safe has not been found \u2026.<\/p>\n Ministers of the Home Office are fighting each other. In fact, the immigration minister has been banned from seeing government documents. Rachel Reeves is ringing round businesses trying to get them to say that sacking her would risk destabilising the economy, as if that hasn\u2019t happened already. She should have had was the good grace to resign alongside Keir Starmer.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, trade unions are arguing about their favoured candidates to be the next chancellor.<\/p>\n The government is descending into chaos and no one is dealing with the serious and urgent threats that this country faces.<\/p>\n Badenoch claimed that Burnham would become PM last this month, but would then need the summer holiday to work out what he thinks. She went on:<\/p>\n double quotation markAndy Burnham is already the prime minister in everything but name. He needs to act like a leader, put an end to speculation, walk into No 10, name his cabinet and come to parliament to tell the country what he plans to do.<\/p>\n Kemi Badenoch Photograph: CCHQShare<\/a><\/p>\n Starmer<\/p>\n Keir Starmer hosting a roundtable at No 10 this morning with figures from the hospitality industry discussing getting young people into work. Photograph: Alberto Pezzali\/PAShare<\/a><\/p>\n For an alternative view on whether Andy Burnham should take questions from the media after his speech this morning, this is from<\/a> Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair\u2019s former communications chief who now co-hosts the Rest is Politics podcast.<\/p>\n double quotation markIf true that @andyburnham not taking media questions after speech today then good move. Speeches matter and when important should speak for themselves. A problem with Keir S communications was that he would make a speech, then take Qs and the broadcast journalists in particular would make it more about them and their \u201ctake\u201d than him. If and when he becomes PM Burnham will be answerable to Parliament, not the showbiz style media coverage of politics. The blah factory will go into overdrive today with journalists interviewing each other about how they ought to be allowed to ask Qs. The speech itself is more important than anything they say before during or after. Setting the agenda vital from the off.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Burnham accused of ‘power without accountability’ over proposals not to take reporters’ questions after today’s speech<\/p>\n Journalists have been told that Andy Burnham will not be taking questions after his speech today. Richard Tice, the Reform UK deputy leader, has described that in a post on social media<\/a> as \u201cpower without accountability\u201d. He says:<\/p>\n double quotation markBurnham\u2019s coup is well underway.<\/p>\n Big speech today with no questions from journalists. No debate in Parliament. No scrutiny from MPs until September.<\/p>\n Power without accountability. Funny how Burnham demanded a General Election in 2022, but not now.<\/p>\n We need a General Election.<\/p>\n Reform UK tend to be pretty good at taking a large number of questions from journalists when they hold press conferences \u2013 although Nigel Farage\u2019s enthusiasm for events of this kind seems to have mysteriously disappeared following the revelation about his undisclosed \u00a35m donation. That is one topic on which questions are not welcome.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Andy Burnham to propose devolution plan in first major policy speech since launching bid for No 10<\/p>\n Good morning. When Keir Starmer became PM, he had published his missions and his first steps, Labour was awash with policy, but some people still felt it was hard to know what his driving motivation was, what was the single big goal he wanted to achieve in politics. Andy Burnham is set to become PM three weeks today<\/a> and in his case it is easy to answer this question because he published a book about it in early 2024 with Steve Rotheram, the Liverpool city region mayor, called Head North<\/a>. They argue that the north of England has lost out because power in the UK is hoarded in the south and they propose a huge rebalancing, achieved by the devolution of decision making and spending away from London, building on some of the work they had been able to achieve as metro mayors.<\/p>\n Anyone curious as to what Burnham will do in Downing Street has to start here. The book even includes a 10 point plan, some elements of which will almost certainly be dropped but some of which will be at the core of the Burnham project.<\/p>\n The Burnham\/Rotheram 10-point plan Photograph: Head North<\/p>\n A \u201cBasic Law\u201d refers to a version of a law passed by Germany after West Germany and East Germany were reunified, saying all states in the country should have \u201cequivalent living standards\u201d.<\/p>\n Burnham and Rotheram ended their book with an \u201cEpilogue to our Grandchildren\u201d. In it they said they hoped their ideas would \u201chelp build a movement of people over the next 25 years which will eventually change Westminster from the outside\u201d. They said they would like to think that by the middle of this century, \u201cthe end of our lives and the start of yours\u201d, that movement would be \u201cso big that real change would then be imminent\u201d.<\/p>\n At the time they were writing Labour<\/a> was expected to win the 2024 general election, but most observers expected Keir Starmer to be reasonably secure for another 10 years. Burnham clearly did not think he would be the person implementing this agenda. Now, just over two years later, he does not have to leave it up to his grandchildren; he will be able to do it himself.<\/p>\n That is the background to today\u2019s speech by Burnham in Manchester. As Pippa Crerar reports, he will pledge to deliver \u201cgood growth in every postcode\u201d by overseeing a significant transfer of power out of Whitehall to local communities.<\/p>\n It is Burnham\u2019s first big speech as the presumptive next PM. Apparently he won\u2019t be taking questions from reporters because he wants the coverage to focus on the speech. It may turn out to be the most important political event of the week, and of course I will be covering it in detail.<\/p>\n Here is the agenda for the day.<\/p>\n Morning: Keir Starmer host a roundtable at Downing Street with the hospitality industry.<\/p>\n 10am: Kemi Badenoch<\/a> gives a speech in London,<\/p>\n 11.30am: Andy Burnham<\/a> gives his devolution speech in Manchester.<\/p>\n 11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.<\/p>\n 2.30pm: Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, takes questions in the Commons.<\/p>\n Afternoon: Starmer is meeting Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary general, in Downing Street.<\/p>\n If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (between 10am and 3pm), or message me on social media. I can\u2019t read all the messages BTL, but if you put \u201cAndrew\u201d in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.<\/p>\n If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X<\/a>, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.<\/p>\n I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can\u2019t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.<\/p>\n