Burnham pitches radical devolution as path to unite Britain

Andy Burnham has pitched a proposed "No 10 North" in Manchester as part of a bid to take power out of the centre and deliver the "biggest rebalancing of power our country has seen". He has paired that with a "10-year mission" to raise living standards, casting devolution as his answer to Britain’s regional and political fractures.

The argument rests on Greater Manchester’s own record. Its councils have a long history of working together, the area became a statutory city region pilot in 2009, and a 2014 devolution agreement widened its powers, including a revised "earn back" deal and more control over transport and infrastructure. Burnham has used that settlement to present Greater Manchester as proof that city-regions can exercise real authority, not just carry out orders from London.

His local mandate is strong. Burnham won his third successive term as mayor in 2024 with 420,749 votes, more than two-thirds of the total, and more than 350,000 ahead of Conservative runner-up Laura Evans, who won 68,946. That result gives him a powerful base in Manchester, but it also exposes the limits of the model: a landslide in one city-region is not the same thing as a national coalition across England, Scotland and Wales.

The obstacles are already clear. The Scottish government said it had "no idea" what Burnham’s UK-wide devolution plan would actually involve, underlining how quickly a Greater Manchester template runs into different constitutional arrangements outside England’s metro regions. Any broader settlement would also depend on the Treasury, which still controls the money and much of the power Burnham wants to move outward.

Burnham has said he intends to stay on as mayor until the May 2028 election, though he has not ruled out future leadership moves if events change. That leaves him straddling two projects at once: a mayoralty built on Greater Manchester’s existing devolution deal, and a national pitch that would require London to hand over authority it has spent decades concentrating.