GMCA boss lined up for Number 10 North
With Andy Burnham seemingly set to become Prime Minister in the coming weeks, the outgoing Greater Manchester Mayor wants combined authority chief executive Caroline Simpson to head what he has called the nerve centre of a rewired Britain.
As reported by Place, Burnham’s speech yesterday at the People’s History Museum outlined how his efforts to turbocharge town centre regeneration will be run out of “Number 10 North”.
Establishing Number 10 North in Manchester would be part of plans for the “the biggest transfer of power out of Whitehall in modern times”, he said.
According to The Guardian, Simpson would have the title of deputy chief of staff. Burnham’s former colleague James Purnell has already been named chief of staff.
Simpson issued a statement yesterday, explaining how she is reallocating some work in the coming weeks. The statement read: “In light of the news about my potential future role at Number 10 North, I have this morning discussed future arrangements with the GMCA Deputy Mayor and my leadership team, and updated staff and stakeholders.
“I will continue to steer the transition to a new Mayor of Greater Manchester over the summer, but to ensure absolute focus remains on the Mayoral by-election over the coming weeks, I am now taking the necessary steps to resign as the returning officer and formally handing over all election responsibilities to my deputy returning officers.”
Simpson took over as GMCA CEO in March 2024, having impressed in an eight-year spell at Stockport Council, first as director of place then becoming chief executive. Formerly head of regeneration and partnerships at the Northwest Regional Development Agency, she then worked in senior roles at Cheshire East before making the move to Stockport.
The mayoral by-election takes place on 30 July.
So everything as usual will go to Manchester – Burnham needs to remember which city he is from.
By Anon
You can’t blame her, once in a lifetime opportunity.
By Anonymous
Burnham rather needs to remember which city he represented and use that as a launching pad for greater representation of the north. Whether or not he’ll be ‘allowed’ to do that remains to be seen. He isn’t even PM yet and you can see the orchestrated forces already moving against him after just one little speech . There are going to have to be some very quick and decisive decisions made and people who have a history of loyalty put in place immediately Otherwise he’s the next Liz Truss.
By Anonymous
Amazing news and well deserved – one of the hardest working people I have ever had the pleasure of working with
By Anonymous
I don’t blame her at all, as June 30, 2026 at 1:05 pm By Anonymous says – a once in a life time opportunity. However, another unelected person at the top of the political tree.
By Steve5839
Seems a bit premature. Mr Burnham hasn’t even been nominated by Labour MPs as a candidate for party leader, never mind appointed PM.
By Pretender
Great news for Caroline, but another blow to Manchester and the Combined Authority.
By Mr Mcr
Let’s hope that Caroline and the new PM,aren’t having to deal with a Reform mayor.There are people out there with less brains than a cactus. I pray that Andy’s popularity is enough to get Bev Craig over the line, so we can continue to thrive as a conurbation. The irony of our old mayor, as PM dealing with someone like Rob Kenyon, is too scary to contemplate.
By Elephant
I wonder what role Steve Rotheram will play in Burnhams government maybe he can continue to carry his bags
By Leonard
Pity the very quiet chief executive of Liverpool City Region wasn’t appointment to balance out the very pro Manchester bias.
By Anonymous
Steve5839 – surely you can’t be proposing that civil servants stand for election?
By Anonymous
At Last some authority from a region other than London, I’ve heard some politicians say that they represent poor and underprivileged areas in the south, but they will still have Westminster,just not all the time.
By Anonymous
It does appear that Andy is intent on breaking the London monopoly , only to further create a Manchester monopoly.
By Anonymous
Sorry Caroline who………ordinary at best at Stockport and has done nothing at the CA. This is doomed to failure
By Jimmyblue
Caroline has been in the right place at the right time throughout her career.
By Anonymous
A nice but moderately successful provincial bureaucrat takes on massively challenging national role. Appointed by moderately successful provincial politician who wants to stay in his narrow Mancunian comfort zone. Good luck to them, they are going to need it.
By Anonymous
The North has a better chance of prospering in many regards if more people put aside some of the tired old rivalries. Liverpool and Manchester aren’t going to succeed arguing between themselves. The city down the M62 is not the city you need to be worrying about.
Burnham is far from perfect (though I worry that is the impossible standard to which he’ll be judged) but see past the petty rivalries and he’s long understood the power of the north collectively. There’s no reason to think he simply wants to create a London of the North (West).
It’s also entirely usual for politicians to bring in people they know and trust, especially early on. Ignoring some of the more ignorant comments, Burnham clearly sees the qualities he needs in Caroline Simpson. Good luck to her. She’s done a lot better job previously than some here are prepared to give credit.
By Solidarity
What has always been an assumed and tongue in cheek north/south divide is set to be beaurocratically solidified by our next unelected PM.
By Rob
Manchester Manchester Manchester
He is already starting to annoy me and he has only been an MP for a week
By Tim
Tim – he was Mayor of GM and now MP for a GM borough, so hardly surprising
By Anonymous
Rob – you know that parties are elected, not PM’s?
By Anon
Long misrepresented and now forgot but Caroline isn’t the only good thing that came out of the NWDA – that’s the politics of regeneration for you.
JimmyBlue@5:18 – have you been to Stockport recently, the pace of regeneration takes a long time to build and you don’t get progress and beat controversy like that without a team working well over a long period. As a Director then Chief Exec of SMBC, then the Mayoral Development Corporation she played her part.
[Have I turned into Caroline’s mum? :0) ]
By MPR
Rob, as I recall Burnham was elected only a couple of weeks ago by the people of Makerfield. We have a parliamentary system in this country we don’t elect Presidents like in the US.
By Anonymous
Some of the people commenting here seem to think that the Government officials based in London are brilliant geniuses and poor little provincial Caroline couldn’t possibly compare. It’s utter nonsense! Whitehall civil servants are no different to the rest of us some are good and some are bad. Caroline as a good track record for delivering large scale regeneration projects which most Whitehall civil servants would be envious of. Burnham clearly has confidence in her and rates her ability to deliver which should be good enough for the rest of us.
By Anonymous
Someone needs to define Manchesterism. It’s a strap line that is banded around as if everyone in the city thinks, acts and does everything differently to everywhere else. What has made Manchester great is a handful of intellectual heavyweights who challenged conventional thinking and developed innovative solutions. Those intellectual heavyweights are no longer there and the draft of their genius is starting to wane. The CA has not developed that mentality and has lived off the success of the Manchester legacy. Who will provide this going forward. Not anyone mentioned in this article
By Robbie