Miles Bennington
Editor – Chamber UKEntering utterly triumphant, the Andy Burnham speech this morning started on a celebratory note. Reminiscing about DJing the venue and a gauzy reminder of his time in Manchester.
Leaving no room for the possibility of a leadership election, Burnham acted as presumptive Prime Minister and presumptive he was. He joked that he’d bought some new running shorts. It was either that or changing the decency laws. The idea that changing laws would soon be in his purview, casually assumed.
For a man so utterly set on being the face of an anti-Westminster revolution though, Burnham does seem to be back in the thick of it. Indeed, much of his speech might have been taken from an episode of The Think of It. Tired phrases like “Innovation Nation” were peppered between absolute cringe fests like; “Now get this. Number 10 north will be the nerve centre of a rewired Britain”. Yes and ho!
Ominously for such a familiar speech however, he quickly got to the heart of the problem. The question that will hang over his premiership.
“What hope can we have that it will be different this time?”
News
First though, the news. For among the cliches, there was some.
He was careful to point out that his plans were in line with the 2024 Labour manifesto, dampening speculation of an early General Election.
He repeatedly referred to sticking within the current fiscal rules. Which seems to rule out a Truss-style unfunded spending binge.
He announced the a new “Number 10 North” to be based in Manchester. From the speech it sounded a bit like Michael Barbour’s old delivery unit from the Blair years, but moved from Downing Street to Coronation Street.
He pledged more powers for London over education and housing to ensure London remained the best… capital… city in the world.
Social value weighting for public contracts will tilt public money towards buying British. Something that may cause problems with both the EU and abundance-pilled policy wonks who decry “everything bagel liberalism”. His focus here is building British capacity in steel, defence, energy, food and farming sectors (though food and farming feels somewhat redundant).
He will aim to devolve employment support to the localities in a bid to reduce the welfare bill.
Business rates will be reformed to support pubs and other businesses that deliver social value.
Perhaps most important of all, Number 10 North will oversee the biggest council house building programme since the post-war period.
“What hope can we have that it will be different this time?”
Andy Burnham
Olds
Disappointing to hear were the old stalwarts of lazy Westminster speechwriting.
First, devolution. There’s good reason to believe that Andy Burnham, until recently the Mayor of Manchester, believes in devolution more than most but this is a solution touted by every recent Prime Minister.
“It’s time for something different, something bold – something that doesn’t just pour money down the throat of wasteful, top-down government schemes.”
“This Government is committed to uniting and levelling up every part of the UK and I am determined that as we build back better from the pandemic we are geared up with the teams and expertise to deliver on that promise.”
“We will spread control out of Westminster and devolve new powers over employment support, transport, energy, climate change, housing, culture, childcare provision and how councils run their finances and will give communities a new right to request powers which go beyond even that.”
These are three separate quotes from David Cameron’s Big Society Speech in 2010, Boris Johnson after a cabinet reshuffle in 2021 and Keir Starmer’s sticking plaster politics speech respectively. We’ve been hearing this rhetoric for almost 20 years. Time to add Burnham to the list of PM’s that promise this like it’s a new or easy solution.
Apprenticeships
Urgh, this again. I’m not against provision for apprenticeships but if they were a solution to Britain’s woes, perhaps they would have worked by now?
- 2010: Point One of the coalition’s further education plans “We will seek ways to support the creation of apprenticeships, internships, work pairings, and college and workplace training places as part of our wider programme to get Britain working.”
- 2015: Government pledges to deliver 3 million apprenticeships
- 2017: With the stage and her Premiership falling down around her Theresa May announced she would be “preparing our young people for the world of the future, setting them up to succeed, taking skills seriously with new T-levels for post-16 education, and a new generation of Technology Institutes in every major city in England – providing the skills local employers need, and more technical training for 16-19 year olds”
- 2020: Boris Johnson said during a speech on the “Life Skills Guarantee” – “So I can announce today that we will be expanding apprenticeships, reforming the system so that unspent funds can be used more easily to support apprenticeships not just in big companies, but in the SMEs where there is so much potential for job creation.”
- May 2026: Keir Starmer vowed to tear up “status quo” that failed young people on apprenticeships and skills
Perhaps we need an apprenticeship for being Prime Minister so they don’t just repeat what the last one said?
New Politics
Do I even need to show my work here?
From Cameron’s saying he was fed up of Punch and Judy politics in… 2005! (God, I’m old) to Jeremy Corbyn’s attempt to change PMQs by using questions from the public in 2015, reforming Westminster’s combative style is almost always the stated aim of new leaders.
Might I suggest Andy focus less on changing the culture of Westminster and more on winning the inevitable combat to come?
Andy Burnham Speech Conclusion
So, a presumptive Andy Burnham has pledged to reform Westminster in the most Westminster way possible. What next?
State intervention in the housing market is genuinely exciting and while Number 10 North will spend much effort trying not to be side-lined by Number 10 South (Number 10 Actual?), the Treasury’s experiment with moving some operations to Darlington has not be a total failure and the precedent of Michael Barbour’s delivery unit is means that there is some institutional memory of a beefed up Number 10 operation.
My overall thoughts however is that Burnham has failed to level with the public on the difficulties Britain faces. He failed to answer his own question: “What hope can we have that it will be different this time?”
Perilous public finances, an aging population, stagnant productivity and an uncertain place in the world, these are the same problems faced by every incumbent of Number 10 since Brexit, perhaps since the financial crisis. With few exceptions, Burnham seems to want to meet them in the same way.
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Photo Credit: LBJ Library photo by Jay Godwin