Andy Burnham, newly installed as UK Prime Minister after ousting Keir Starmer, has set out an ambitious vision centred on a “No.10 North” office in Manchester, redistribution of power and resources, and a 10-year plan for re-industrialisation, utilities reform and place-based regeneration.

His agenda explicitly rejects four decades of Thatcherite neo-liberalism, prioritising public control of utilities, social housing, dual academic/technical education pathways, devolution and greater equality of living standards across regions.

While domestic priorities are clear, a coherent foreign-policy framework (including EU relations, aid and immigration) remains underdeveloped, and success will depend on delivering tangible improvements within a tight three-year window before the next election.

“The change we are planning will be the biggest change in our lifetimes to the way the country is run.” So said Andy Burnham on 29 June, a month before becoming the new UK Prime Minister.

His vision includes a more streamlined state with a clearer purpose. A new Prime Minister’s office based in Manchester – No.10 North – “will be the conduit through which we redistribute power and resources across the UK. It will coordinate all parts of government, at national and local level, to agree on a long-term economic strategy.”

“It [No.10 North] will be given a mission to strive for equivalent living conditions in all parts of Britain” — a principle borrowed from the German Basic Law, the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany.

“No.10 North will support the regions on three clear tasks: Reform of essential utilities; Re-industrialisation; And the regeneration of places.”

Burnham has pledged to deliver a 10-year plan to renew Britain and reform its troubled politics – a plan that includes ending rough sleeping, reforming education, and tackling social care.

This means breaking with the corrosive ideology of the past 40 years, a period in which Thatcherism, in varying degrees, has shaped, and poisoned, the socio-economic order; fuelling division, promoting greed, and fermenting resentment.

Andy Burnham began his political career in 1994 as a researcher for the late Labour MP Tessa Jowell. He later became a special adviser (1998–2001) within Tony Blair’s government, a role he held until his election as an MP in 2001.

He speaks with sincerity and passion, and comes across as “normal”:........

© Eurasia Review