Andy Burnham, the former mayor of Greater Manchester and likely Britain's next prime minister, pledged Monday to hand greater autonomy to local leaders and move part of the prime minister's office from London's 10 Downing St. to northwest England. It's a radical pitch to rewire a country where power and opportunity have been concentrated in Westminster for generations.
Burnham said the shift would be a "circuit-breaker" for the sclerotic British state and part of "the biggest rebalancing of power our country has seen." Speaking at the People's History Museum in Manchester, he laid out a 10-year plan for "good growth in every postcode" — an explicit rejection of the top-down model that's left regions outside London starved of investment and opportunity. "Growth cannot be ordered from the top down," he said. "Instead, it can only be nurtured from the bottom up."
Manchesterism Goes National
Burnham's approach, dubbed "Manchesterism," would harness private and public money to invest in transport, housing and infrastructure, create new industrial jobs and better educational opportunities, and reform the U.K.'s inefficient and expensive privatized water and energy utilities. A new government office in Manchester, dubbed "No. 10 North," would oversee regional development and become "the nerve center of a rewired Britain," with regional mayors getting more power over housing, welfare and education.
He won praise for his role in revitalizing and regenerating Manchester during nine years as mayor. But he hasn't served in a U.K. government for almost two decades and may struggle to replicate "Manchesterism" on a U.K.-wide scale. The Institute for Public Policy Research, a left-leaning think tank, said Burnham is right to focus on "rebalancing Britain." IPPR Executive Director Harry Quilter-Pinner said: "The U.K.'s concentration of power and opportunity in Westminster has held back growth, productivity and living standards for too long." He added: "The real test now is delivery."
Matthew Flinders, a politics professor at the University of Sheffield, said replicating Burnham's Manchester approach nationally would require "a fundamental shift" in the way politics is done in Britain. That would mean moving from "a very traditional, elitist, centralized model of politics toward something that is in many ways far more European, far more based on power-sharing in order to develop long-term policymaking capacity."
The Starmer Shadow
Burnham is the strong favorite to replace Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who announced his resignation 7 days ago. Burnham won a special election for a seat in Parliament 11 days ago and was sworn in as a lawmaker 7 days ago, the same day Starmer announced that he will resign as soon as a successor is chosen. Burnham is so far the only contender in the Labour Party leadership contest. If no one challenges him, he'll become prime minister 21 days from today.
Burnham will be aware that Starmer also announced a 10-year mission — the equivalent of two full terms in government — soon after he was elected in a landslide in July 2024. Starmer is leaving after two years in office marred by missteps and judgment errors that eroded his standing with his party and the public. Burnham will face many of the same political and economic challenges, including a sluggish economy, tattered public services and a cost-of-living squeeze.
The Constraints Ahead
He'll also be constrained by the platform the center-left Labour Party was elected on in 2024, with its pledges not to increase taxes on working people. The U.K., like other NATO countries, is under pressure to dramatically increase defense spending to counter a more aggressive Russia and less reliable United States. The government's long-awaited defense investment plan, which sparked the resignation of Defense Secretary John Healey 18 days ago, is expected to be published before a NATO summit in Turkey 8 to 9 days from today. Starmer's successor will be expected to stick to the commitments in the plan.
Opposition Conservative Party Chairman Kevin Hollinrake said: "Andy Burnham's big idea is to shuffle power between politicians. Not fix the welfare system. Not cut the taxes strangling working families and British business. Not fund the defense our country desperately needs." Burnham countered that without fixing the fundamentals — giving councils the power and resources to fix potholes, let alone bring forward major regeneration schemes — growth won't happen. "If councils can't fix potholes, what chance do they have of bringing forward major regeneration schemes to get growth going?" he said.
Why This Matters:
Burnham's pitch represents a fundamental challenge to the way Britain has been governed for generations — a model that's left entire regions economically stagnant while London prospered. The promise of devolution and regional investment isn't new; Gordon Brown proposed a similar "Council of the Nations and Regions" and successive governments have talked about levelling up. What's different is Burnham's track record in Manchester and his willingness to move actual power — not just rhetoric — out of Westminster. But he inherits a country facing a cost-of-living crisis, crumbling public services, and fiscal constraints that limit room for maneuver. The real test will be whether "Manchesterism" can deliver for working families across the country, or whether it becomes another unfulfilled promise in a long line of regional development schemes that never materialized. With defense spending pressures mounting and tax rise pledges constraining his options, Burnham will need to show that empowering local leaders can unlock growth without requiring massive central government spending — a difficult balancing act that will define his premiership from day one.