Andy Burnham sets out radical plan to 'rewire Britain' in speech pitching for 10 years as PM

Andy Burnham has set out his radical plan to "rewire Britain" in a speech pitching for 10 years as Prime Minister.

The Labour leadership frontrunner vowed to "lift Britain back up to where we all want it to be" and "give the nation the circuit-breaker it needs" if he became party leader.

Speaking from Manchester, Mr Burnham outlined plans for the "biggest transfer of power out of Whitehall in modern times" in a wider regional power-sharing arrangement in a major shake-up.

Since the financial crash, Westminster is "not working" and has left the UK "stuck in a rut", the Makerfield MP said, adding it left politicians resorting to "finger-pointing political point-scoring".

Instead, he called for the "broadest possible coalition of people to lift Britain back up to where we all want it to be".

He said: "The time has come to build the broadest possible coalition of people to lift Britain back up to where we all want it to be.

"After 10 years of political turbulence since Brexit and 20 years of falling living standards since the 2008 financial crash, Westminster has not been working for people, and it has not been working for a very long time."

Echoing many of his own opponents, Mr Burnham also ceded that public trust in politicians has eroded over time, and that he, along with others of his generation, must take accountability.

Part of his plans include establishing a "No10 North" to fuel long-term economic renewal spanning across the country, which will become "the nerve centre of a rewired Britain".

He said the power-sharing hub would only be based in Manchester, but would work to pour power into the Midlands, the south west, the East of England and "into London as much as into the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber".

"And here in the North West, it will be about offering new opportunities to extend devolution in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland by taking power deeper down, the people of Dundee and Bangor feel just as distant from Holyrood and the Senate, as they do from Westminster," Mr Burnham said.

The Prime Minister hopeful also promised to nurture growth from the bottom up, deploying what he calls "Manchesterism" from his time as the region's mayor.

"It comes from having the power at ground level to make a real difference, from a clear shared vision that everyone can understand, and investors can back," he said.

"It comes from running sound finances, as we have done here in Greater Manchester, which in turn gives businesses the stability and the confidence to invest, increasing their productivity and adoption of new technology.

"It comes from committing to decent infrastructure in all parts of the UK, and getting national investors to back the aspirations set by regions.

"It comes from giving people the security of a good home and good employment, so that they can be as productive as possible, from good mobility and an ability to afford the basics, and it comes from not leaving everything to the market, but public intervention where necessary to set higher ambitions for towns, as we did in Stockport, and kick-start the process of change.

The former mayor also promised to implement the "biggest council house building programme since the post-war period".

Mr Burnham said the nation had been left in a "housing trap" and its crisis is having a "ruinous impact on its public finances".

Setting out his 10-year mission to boost living standards for Britons, Mr Burnham cited his "10 years of fighting the Whitehall machine, blocking (Manchester's) progress".

"I am simply not prepared to accept the same for any area," he said.

"The whole of Whitehall will now be required to get behind our places and work together with them to make quicker, more joined-up decisions."

By setting out a decade in power, Mr Burnham is appearing to be vying to fight two General Elections as Labour leader.

Other Prime Ministers who have whipped up plans for a decade in power have fallen well short of the ambitious milestone, including Boris Johnson, Theresa May and Mr Burnham’s likely predecessor, Sir Keir Starmer.

David Cameron has come the closest in recent years, managing six years as Prime Minister before stepping aside in 2016.