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Andy Burnham has vowed to end "politics as usual" with a sweeping economic vision for the UK, but who is going to pay for it?
In this clip from the Business as Usual podcast, City AM's Editor-in-Chief Christian May breaks down Burnham's highly ambitious devolution agenda. From state-controlled utilities to a massive council house building program, we dissect why this "Number 10 in the North" playbook mirrors the unmandated, high-risk economic rewriting of the Liz Truss era, and what it means for your wallet.
Tell us what you think in the comments: Can the UK afford Burnham's vision, or are we heading for another fiscal nightmare?
#AndyBurnham #LabourParty #UKEconomy #TaxRaid #LizTruss #Devolution #CityAM
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0:00
Now, the MP for Makerfield and soon to be the PM of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Andy Burnham
0:04
has given a keynote speech on his plans for the future of the UK economy
0:09
He pledged more state control over utilities, a massive council house building programme
0:14
and promised to move more government functions to the north of England. Joining us now to dig into what was said is our editor-in-chief, Christian May
0:22
Christian, your reaction to that speech? Well, he's not short on ambition. I'll give him that
0:27
Armed only with one by-election victory, he now tells us he's going to oversee the greatest change to the way in which this country is run in any of our lifetimes
0:36
And politically, that's obviously extremely interesting. And parts of it, I think, sound superficially quite attractive
0:42
There wasn't much in there about quite how he's going to pay for all this. And also, you have to think about the detail if you take even just half of what it is he's pledging to do, this absolutely enormous devolution agenda
0:55
the legislative paperwork sends the mind into a spin. Completely rewrite and overhaul the local government acts
1:06
probably completely rewrite and overhaul the town and country planning act. Anyway, we're getting ahead of ourselves
1:11
My main reaction was that, first of all, I could picture Keir Starmer watching it
1:16
and thinking, oh, that's how you do it. It was very good
1:20
I mean, the guy's got charisma, he's fizzing with ideas. Even I, when I suspend my journalistic scepticism, found myself getting a little swept up in the hope and the rhetoric and the vision
1:32
But it is our jobs to pull ourselves back down to earth and to pull our listeners and readers back down to earth
1:38
It was incredibly ambitious. And it makes me think, and not in a good way, of Liz Truss
1:44
and it makes me think of the comparison because like Liz Truss coming in without a personal
1:52
mandate, coming in taking over from your predecessor without a general election and
1:58
totally, totally rewriting the direction you want to take the country in, it does strike me somewhat
2:04
that he's acting as if we can afford any of this and he's acting as if he has a mandate for it
2:09
He says he will stay within the letter or the numbers of the fiscal rules and indeed within
2:13
in the spirit of Labour's 2024 manifesto. But I would be very surprised if he can do
2:18
either of those things. I thought the most striking line in his whole speech was when he said the political direction I set won be up for negotiation which felt like it was a massive challenge to Labour backbenchers who essentially sank
2:33
Keir Starmer's government by not allowing him to pass legislation around welfare and other sort of
2:39
economic measures that he needed to. Do you think that this control and sway that Andy Burnham
2:45
needs to and wants to have over his own party will materialise
2:49
There's an interesting contradiction there that he says none of this will be up for debate, which makes me think of the flogging will continue until morale improves
3:00
None of this will be up for debate. At the same time, he wants to do something creative with the whipping system
3:06
He made a point of saying he doesn't like the traditional whipping system in Westminster
3:09
of cajoling party good conduct. So that'll be an interesting one for him to figure out
3:15
It depends. If Labour MPs are still so swept up with relief and enthusiasm that he has managed to defeat reform, that he's managed to seize control of the Labour Party and promise this bold new direction, then maybe they'll go along with him
3:28
But I doubt they'll go along with him forever, to say nothing of the rest of Parliament
3:32
It is such an incredibly ambitious agenda that honestly sounded like, I don't know whether it sounded more like a speech ahead of a general election or one having just won a massive general election
3:46
But it's going to be very difficult for him to make the case that even half of what he set out in this speech, which I say again was a very well delivered speech, even if he didn't take any questions from journalists at the end of it
3:58
It's going to be hard for him to set much of this into practice. without the most extraordinary exertion of political capital in Westminster
4:09
Now, he doesn't like Westminster very much. He made that clear. He came down to London, did some selfies
4:13
he went back up to Manchester to give this speech and told them all that things in Westminster are even worse than he thought
4:18
And he says that we're all too divided, we're arguing, and he painted a vision of what it would be like if we could all just get along
4:24
I always thought it was striking when I used to book guests on TV, I once wanted to book him during Covid as a former health secretary
4:30
and his people said, no, he won't come on in that capacity and he will not speak having been a health secretary
4:37
in that government. Now, he's very passionate about devolution and the North
4:42
and he wants to sort of start a number 10 in the North. But do you think a lot of this narrative that you know all this money has just been pouring into the South and the North has been slightly forgotten Is that a slightly older slightly out narrative Because another newspaper called the Financial Times Who
5:02
I know. And a firm called Public First found that since the Brexit vote
5:06
an overwhelming amount of money via the Leveling Up Fund and various other funds has gone to the North and Midlands
5:13
with affluent London boroughs such as Richmond and Kingston receiving almost nothing and even poorer parts of the capital
5:19
such as Redbridge receiving far less than the North. So is he sort of maybe slightly late to the party on this
5:27
That's a really interesting point because I was thinking about this ahead of a column I'll write on this very topic
5:32
I can remember the 2010 Conservative Party manifesto, which was called an invitation to join the government of Britain
5:39
And it was full of everything Andy Burnham just said about radical devolution, about giving local authorities
5:46
and local communities much more power over services and much more influence over policy and indeed more money
5:52
And after that, we then had George Osborne's Northern Powerhouse agenda, which gave us all sorts of things, including a mayoralty in Manchester
5:59
Of course, that's where Andy Burnham's been for the last few years. So there's nothing inherently new about pointing out the imbalance
6:06
if you like, between the North and the South, to put it crudely. Of course, it's not a uniform picture
6:11
So it's not only slightly old-fashioned, it's slightly out of date. Now, to take Andy Burnham at his word, what he wants to do is not just constantly transfer money from wealthy parts of the country to the rest
6:24
We've been doing that for a very long time. He wants all parts of the country to enjoy what he calls good growth, good growth in every postcode, he says
6:32
And he wants those regions and cities and indeed the nations of the UK to start paying their own way
6:38
And who could be against that? Sounds fantastic. But one of my least popular or least trendy opinions is that devolution is wildly over fetishized in this country
6:47
And we can look at the example of Scotland and Wales the last couple of decades and see how it's paid off
6:52
And almost everything the Welsh and Scottish governments have touched has been a disaster, not least in health and education
6:57
So the idea that local councils who can't seem to get potholes right at the moment are going to become efficient and expert managers of water and utilities and transport and building
7:08
I think is probably for the birds. If I had to guess at his political strategy
7:14
I would say that he is trying to carve out some kind of heartlands again for Labour I think one of the scary things for the party about the Starmer premiership was they were losing almost uniformly in all parts of the country And there was I think some polls have pointed to opinion polling and focus grouping that showed that
7:31
Starmer's unpopularity had no flaw. So if I had to predict, I would say that a new focus for Labour
7:38
will end up being basically winning back reform heartlands or trying to do so. But then by doing
7:43
that there is a possibility that they're essentially surrendering the southwest possibly
7:49
london blue wall is back blue wall is back and so it feels to me almost like this strange return
7:54
to the john major years of a sort of a country divided in two so what would what do you make of
8:01
that prediction it is very interesting the way he frames all of this and i speak as the editor of
8:05
the city of london news organization but also as a proud cornishman myself um the number 10 outpost
8:11
is going to be in Manchester. He is very much setting up a sort of battle of the north
8:16
a northern rebellion, a northern renaissance, I'm sure, is how he would prefer to put it
8:21
But there was very little in his speech about the here and now, the things that are affecting all of us, wherever we are
8:26
whatever business you run in whatever part of the country, your costs are increasing, your tax burden is increasing
8:32
He does try to address this by saying that, you know, a rising northern tide will lift all boats
8:38
across the rest of the country. But he's definitely in a very interesting way setting up quite interesting sort of geographic tussles in a way that we haven't seen before
8:46
Previously, the debate has always been about, you know, on the right, they've been talking about the kind of one nation approach
8:52
And reform is obviously still as big a thorn in Labour's side as it was under Keir Starmer
8:57
But I was speaking to one pollster who said, look, if Andy Burnham becomes prime minister, there'll be an immediate six point drop in reforms, polling levels
9:04
Now, reform have led in, I think, each of the last 300 polls
9:08
So we'll see if that comes to pass. Just parking my own scepticism about his policy agenda
9:13
I would reiterate that I think he's going to be an exceptionally effective communicator
9:17
He's going to take a lot of people with him. And that was his pitch in the most recent speech he gave
9:22
People need hope, he said, and he's going to try and offer it. Now, sooner or later, people will stop looking forward to hope
9:27
and asking, where is it? That will be the challenge for him, one of implementation
9:32
Well, Christian, we will let you return to your devolved number 10 in your office
9:36
but thank you there's no second power base in city absolutely not thank you very much for coming in
9:42
thank you
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