Monday 06 July 2026 4:33 am  |  Updated:  Friday 03 July 2026 5:48 pm

‘Number 10 North’ is no more than a gimmick

By: Eliot Wilson

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Number 10 North has been designed to attract headlines without having been put under any real scrutiny, writes Eliot Wilson

Last week, before he travelled to London to swear the Oath of Allegiance and take his seat as the newest Member of the House of Commons, Andy Burnham gave a speech at the People’s History Museum in Manchester. The venue was no accident: the People’s History Museum grandly bills itself as the “national museum of democracy”, and declares that it is “about creating a fairer world” and “committed to standing in solidarity with people who face persecution and discrimination”.

This coincided perfectly with the tenor of Burnham’s speech in which he set out his big idea, devolution.

“Westminster,” he told his audience, “hadn’t been working for people and it hasn’t been working for a very long time. In fact, it is broken. And, as a result, the country isn’t where it should be. It is stuck in a rut.” To address this decay, he wants to devolve power from Whitehall and Westminster to lower levels of governance which will be more collaborative and in touch with voters.

Listening to Burnham’s speech, there was an air of Harold Macmillian’s put-down of the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Liberals in 1961: he offered a mixture of sound and original ideas. Unfortunately none of........

© City A.M.