Andy Burnham, the former mayor of Greater Manchester nicknamed the “King of the North”, was elected leader of Britain’s governing Labour Party on Friday, the final step before he becomes the country’s seventh prime minister in a decade.
At a special conference on Friday, Burnham said he was ready for power and would work to offer hope to people in “forgotten places everywhere”. “We are united and we put the power that comes from that unity at the service of people,” he told a room of Labour lawmakers and party officials.
Burnham earned his nickname for his determination, as Greater Manchester mayor, to defend the region’s interests. He will replace Keir Starmer as prime minister on Monday, when the party is expected to reveal his cabinet team and set out more of his approach to government.
Burnham has campaigned on a pledge to thwart the rise of the populist Reform UK party, which has topped opinion polls for months and threatens Labour’s hold on parliamentary seats at the next election, due by 2029. He returned to parliament last month after winning the Makerfield seat, beginning a four-week process to remove Starmer, whose unpopularity had turned Labour lawmakers against him.
In a speech since his return, Burnham set out plans for what he called the “biggest rebalancing of power” from London to Britain’s regions, arguing this would ease the inequality and resentment felt by “left-behind communities” that have increasingly turned to Reform.
His central pledge is decentralisation. Burnham has said Whitehall, the London district housing government departments, has grown too powerful at the expense of Britain’s regions, and has promised to hand more control over economic development, housing, transport, education and skills to regional authorities. He plans to establish a “Number 10 North” in Manchester, mirroring Downing Street, to drive that shift and oversee what he calls “good growth” in every postcode. He has also pledged to give regions greater public control over essential services including water, housing, energy and transport, and to extend devolution to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, where assemblies currently lack tax-raising and borrowing powers.
On industry, Burnham wants to rebuild Britain’s manufacturing base, with particular focus on defence, steel, energy and food and farming, and has called for greater investment in the armed forces to help reindustrialise struggling regions and reduce reliance on foreign suppliers.
On education, he wants less emphasis on university education and greater parity between academic and technical qualifications, and has urged businesses to offer more apprenticeships for young people.
On housing, Burnham has pledged the biggest social housing building programme since the post-war period, using vacant public land to cut costs, and has said he wants to adopt a “Housing First” approach modelled on Finland’s system of offering homeless people permanent homes rather than transitional accommodation.
On tax, he has committed to Labour’s existing fiscal rules and its manifesto pledge not to raise taxes on working people, while floating reforms including changes to business rates to support pubs and high street businesses, and a land-value tax that could replace stamp duty and council tax.
Burnham has said social care needs a major overhaul, though has given fewer details. On foreign policy, he has said Britain should do more to pressure Israel, a position that won him support from Labour’s left, while pledging to maintain UK support for Ukraine against Russia’s invasion and to build closer defence and security ties with other European countries.
Nigel Wilcock, executive director of the Institute of Economic Development, said Burnham had spent years making the case for a different approach to economic growth. “The challenge is turning that vision into a reality,” he said.
Speaking after being confirmed as Labour leader, Burnham said he had not yet decided on his top team. “I haven’t made any decisions yet about who will be in that top team,” he said, adding that it would reflect all parts of the party.
(With information from Reuters)
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