{"id":664768,"date":"2026-06-29T18:36:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T18:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/664768\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T18:36:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T18:36:12","slug":"andy-burnham-vows-to-set-up-no-10-north-as-nerve-centre-of-rewired-britain-andy-burnham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/664768\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Burnham vows to set up No 10 North as \u2018nerve centre of rewired Britain\u2019 | Andy Burnham"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andy Burnham will set up No 10 North as the \u201cnerve centre of a rewired Britain\u201d to oversee a devolution of power and resources across the UK that he said would deliver the change the country desperately needed.<\/p>\n

The prime minister-in-waiting said the Westminster system was \u201cbroken\u201d and that a \u201cmore of the same\u201d approach would neither improve living standards or restore people\u2019s faith in how politics worked for them.<\/p>\n

In his first speech since Keir Starmer announced he was standing down<\/a>, Burnham repeatedly returned to the theme of a decade of \u201cchange\u201d but also set out concrete policies to transform how the country works, beginning with overcoming Whitehall\u2019s resistance to change.<\/p>\n

No 10 North would have three \u201cclear tasks\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 even if this cost taxpayers more.<\/p>\n

However, Burnham acknowledged that \u201cpeople can\u2019t wait for ever for change\u201d, as he hinted at an early cost of living support package once he made it to Downing Street. \u201cI heard on doorsteps in Makerfield how people need a bit extra now to help with rising costs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new Makerfield MP, dressed in a dark T-shirt and jacket rather than the usual politician\u2019s uniform of a suit and tie, is expected to become prime minister on 20 July, unless he is challenged for the Labour<\/a> leadership. His promise of a \u201cnew direction\u201d is at the heart of his offer to the country.<\/p>\n

\"HowHow would PM-in-waiting Andy Burnham change Britain? | The Latest<\/p>\n

He told his audience at the People\u2019s History Museum in Manchester: \u201cWhat hope can we have that it will be different this time?\u2019 That is the question I would be asking if I was a voter right now.<\/p>\n

\u201cWestminster 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\u2019t where it should be. It is stuck in a rut, and clearly we can\u2019t go on like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burnham, who served in the last Labour government and sat on the opposition benches until he became mayor of Greater Manchester<\/a>, said his generation of politicians had to take responsibility for not being good enough.<\/p>\n

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\u201cNow that might matter less in a world where people\u2019s lives are getting better, but when they are not, it is dangerous and destructive of what remains of cultural trust in politics,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 \u201cin hock\u201d to bond markets<\/a>, adding that his programme was backed by \u201cthe discipline that comes from sound public finances\u201d.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Instead, he said he wanted to establish a \u201cbroad church\u201d from within the Labour party, after concerns the Starmer government had been too factional, and would reach out to other political parties to find \u201cas much common ground as we can\u201d to help deliver his 10-year plan for change.<\/p>\n

Burnham said Whitehall had long been \u201ctoo adversarial\u201d and that different departments had wasted too much time fighting each other. \u201cLet me say this very directly: the days of Whitehall fighting the devolution of power into the regions and nations are over for good.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the UK needed \u201ca complete rethink\u201d about how to support the next generation to succeed, promising to expand technical education giving every young person a \u201cclear path\u201d into a reindustrialised Britain, and rebalancing the focus on the university route.<\/p>\n

Echoing the words of John Lennon, Burnham asked people to imagine \u201chope in every heart\u201d as he rounded off his pitch to be Britain\u2019s next prime minister. \u201cImagine 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Burnham will set up No 10 North as the \u201cnerve centre of a rewired Britain\u201d to oversee…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":664769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-664768","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\/664768","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=664768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}