Burnham demands power shift from Whitehall
The Mayor of Greater Manchester used a speech at the Great North Investment Summit on Monday to launch his pitch as an MP for Makerfield and as a wide-ranging critique of centralised government, arguing that the “North doesn’t have all of the control that it needs” ahead of the forthcoming by-election.
Speaking in Leeds, Andy Burnham framed the contest as a referendum on four decades of economic policy, calling for “a serious transfer of power and resources right across the North of England”.
Burnham said the by-election would focus attention on communities “long forgotten by national politics”, including Ashton-in-Makerfield, Orrell, Winstanley, Hindley, Platt Bridge, Abram, and Bickershaw.
“My core argument is this: Britain has been on the wrong path for 40 years, a path that has damaged communities across the North,” he said.
“The de-industrialisation of the 1980s was devastating for places across Makerfield… the draining away of economic, social, and political power from these places. They were left to drift.”
The Mayor linked the decline of former industrial communities to “40 years of neo-liberalism” and argued that councils across the North had been “stripped of the resources and powers to do anything about it.”
Potholes, long the universal shorthand for public frustration and the quickest way to unite almost any room of voters, proved irresistible to Burnham as he noted: “If politics can’t fix something as simple as a pothole, you’ve got a very big problem.”
The speech also set out a series of policy ambitions for Makerfield, including bringing all local rail stations and services into the Bee Network, expanding council housing, and accelerating industrial redevelopment at the former PPG site in Hindley Green.
Burnham said his “plan for Makerfield will be ambitious” and would focus on “how we lift up its people and places over the next decade,” linking investment in transport, housing, manufacturing, and technical education to a broader push to rebalance economic power towards communities such as Hindley, Platt Bridge, Ashton-in-Makerfield, and Bickershaw.
Arguing that technical education has been neglected for decades in favour of university routes, he made his most impassioned part of the speech: “What about the millions of young people across the North of England who want technical qualifications, paths into skilled jobs, and support to reach them? Too often, they’ve been written off.”
As for the swirling question over his stance on re-joining the European Union, Burnham addressed the issue head on, reiterating that he is not advocating for it and saying Britain needs “a relentless domestic focus.”
Echoing a populist mantra found in politics across the world, he said: “Let’s fix our own country. Let’s get it working again. Let’s make it feel like a country that works for everyone.”
In his closing remarks, Burnham summed up by acknowledging Labour’s declining support across parts of the North: “The loss of faith among people who once saw Labour as their natural party is our responsibility — nobody else’s. I want to help put that right.”
The Great North Investment Summit brought together Mayors from across the North, alongside Leaders for Lancashire County Council and Cheshire West and Chester Council, for a day showcasing the region’s £14bn pipeline of investable projects.
