Andy Burnham to set out his plans for changing the country - what is devolution?

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In exactly three weeks’ time, Andy Burnham is expected to walk through the door of No 10 as the UK’s new Prime Minister.

Before then, though, he needs to set out his vision for the country. That will come later this morning in a speech at the People’s History Museum in – where else? – Manchester.

Long-time Burnham aficionados won’t be surprised to hear much of his pitch centres around a single idea: devolution.

He’ll pledge to use his time in power to change how the UK is governed, not just who governs it.

Devolution is the process of handing down (or ‘devolving’) powers from central government to decision-making bodies further down the constitutional ladder.

The standout example of this in recent history came after Tony Blair came to power in 1997, with the creation of devolved legislatures in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

These governments (or assembly, in the case of Northern Ireland) are able to make decisions in devolved areas such as education and health.

But the government in Westminster retains control of areas such as immigration and defence – and can also veto certain decisions, as it did with Holyrood’s gender recognition reform bill in 2023.

A smaller-scale version of devolution has also been playing out over the past 15 years or so in English combined authorities.

This is where Burnham comes in. He wants to kick off the ‘biggest transfer of power out of Whitehall in modern times’, arguing that regions and local communities should be making more of the decisions that affect them.

That means more powers for combined authorities, devolved governments- and mayors, the role Burnham held until a little under two weeks ago.

As the now-former Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham is evangelical about the positive impact of spreading power across the country.

In his 2024 book Head North, written with Liverpool Mayor Steve Rotheram, he calls for a ‘federal UK’.

That would mean a system of government more similar to the US or Germany, where individual states have roughly equal status to the central government even if not all powers are devolved.

Burnham writes that the UK must ‘complete the process of devolving power out of Westminster to all parts of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to allow all the nations and regions to do much more for themselves’.

‘Only then,’ he adds, ‘will we usher in a new era where people and places can be masters of their own destiny, and free to collaborate, without everything having to pass through the distorting lens of Westminster.’

At his speech today, Burnham will say that replacing the ‘centralised, top-down model’ with a local focus will result in ‘good growth in every postcode’.

If you’re wondering how he could get away with such major changes when he’s just been parachuted into Parliament via a by-election, the good news for Burnham is this was largely promised in his party’s 2024 manifesto.

It says: ‘Labour will transfer power out of Westminster, and into our communities, with landmark devolution legislation to take back control.’

In fact, the government has already passed the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026 to hand down more powers to authorities around the country.

Communities Secretary Steve Reed said on Sky News yesterday that Burnham would put ‘rocket boosters’ under the devolution that began under Sir Keir Starmer.

Such a move would also mean handing more power to the Reform mayors of Greater Lincolnshire and Hull and East Yorkshire, as well as the Conservative mayors of Tees Valley and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

And it risks voters blaming the new PM if they are disappointed in how their local bodies are handling complex new areas.

This appears to be the central idea behind Burnham’s upcoming term in power – so he’ll be hoping everything works out as planned.

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