JASON GROVES: Burnham's speech was a vision of Britain's past dressed up as the future. He's taking his party back to the days of Neil Kinnock - and Ed Miliband's fingerprints are all over his Left-wing prospectus

By JASON GROVES, POLITICAL EDITOR Published: 17:45, 29 June 2026 | Updated: 17:52, 29 June 2026 This was a vision of the past dressed up as the future. Outside Manchester’s People’s History Museum, Britain is getting to grips with a world of AI chatbots, driverless taxis and drone warfare. Inside the former hydraulic pumping station, Andy Burnham was setting out a vision of council houses, factories and state control of the major utilities to an adoring crowd of local Labour activists. It would have been no surprise if the would-be PM had donned Michael Foot’s old donkey jacket, which rests in an exhibition case in the museum’s galleries, alongside his own Covid-era anorak. If this sounds a little unfair to Mr Burnham then perhaps it is – but only a little. There were the obligatory cliched references to making Britain an ‘innovation nation’, a nod to building ‘decent infrastructure’ and a pledge to improve technical education of the kind made by successive prime ministers for at least a decade. A new wave of council housing could restore the kind of ‘working class aspiration’ he remembered from his childhood in the 1970s. Well, maybe. But there was very little in the way of detailed policy. And almost no sense of where Mr Burnham sees Britain’s place in a world that is changing at warp speed. In a speech at the People’s History Museum in Manchester Andy Burnham set out a vision of council houses, factories and state control of the major utilities to an adoring crowd of local Labour activists The new Makerfield MP was deep in comfort zone territory here – surrounded by political friends, extolling the virtues of devolution and harking back to an industrial age that is largely gone. This was a leader taking his party back. not to the triumphant days of New Labour, but to something more like the days of Neil Kinnock. Left-wing Labour activists are getting their party back after the Morgan McSweeney era. The media were barred from puncturing the mood with difficult questions, such as, how do you square a bid to ‘reindustrialise’ Britain with the prospective appointment of Ed Miliband as Chancellor – a man whose energy policies are currently threatening to destroy what is left of British industry? How much is this expensive-sounding programme going to cost middle class taxpayers in the south? Will you hold a General Election to beef up your wafer-thin mandate? And so on. Mr Burnham’s youthful media handlers claimed he did not have time to answer questions because he ‘has to catch a train to London’. Pretty lame from a man whose entire speech was about shifting power out of the capital. In truth, the former mayor has been in ‘submarine mode’ since his thumping by-election win. Apart from this one solitary speech there have been no press conferences, no media interviews, no articles setting out his plan for the country. The man who will be prime minister in less than three weeks has given the public only the sketchiest idea of what he intends to do. It is unprecedented. Mr Burnham’s youthful media handlers claimed he did not have time to answer questions because he ‘has to catch a train to London’. Pretty lame from a man whose entire speech was about shifting power out of the capital In part, this is because his small team is almost overwhelmed by the sheer volume of decisions now facing them. Fewer than a dozen Labour MPs attended the speech, most members of Labour’s ‘Manchester mafia’, such as deputy leader Lucy Powell and chief whip Jonathan Reynolds, who are both in line for major roles. Mr Miliband stayed away for fear his presence would prove a distraction. But his fingerprints are all over Mr Burnham’s Left-wing prospectus for the country. Friends insist Mr Burnham is ‘not afraid of questions’. But it is hard to escape the conclusion that he is dodging them now because he knows he does not have the answers yet. He is also keen to appear to be in listening mode for now. Mr Burnham spoke extensively of forming an ‘inclusive team at the very highest level so that all parts of the party - and the country - can see themselves reflected and represented in it’. The Westminster whipping system will be loosened a little, he suggested. But in the same breath he said the political direction of his government ‘is not up for negotiation’. Mr Burnham’s team are conscious that he will have the weakest mandate of any modern British PM. Despite protestations to the contrary, his team are still considering the option of calling an election in the coming months if the polls look favourable. But for now Mr Burnham is clinging to the mandate secured by Keir Starmer, insisting that his programme is ‘consistent with the 2024 manifesto’. At the heart of his plan is a big push for devolution involving ‘the biggest rebalancing of power our country has seen’ in order to deliver ‘good growth in every postcode’. A new ‘No10 North’ operation based in Manchester will act as the ‘nerve centre’ and could even provide his own operating base for part of each week, if security considerations allow. His speech contained 18 references to Whitehall and Westminster, all of them negative. Westminster, he said, is ‘broken’. Few would argue that the British state is functioning well. But the verdict on devolution is not clear-cut either. Central Manchester certainly has some impressive skyscrapers. Allies of the would-be PM invited visitors to ‘look at what we’ve done here’. But has that economic uplift really spread to the wider city region where Mr Burnham has reigned as mayor for the best part of a decade? Scotland and Wales have had even greater powers for even longer. But have the economy and public services dramatically improved in either nation as a result? Even the biggest advocates of devolution do not claim it will be a quick fix for Britain’s problems. Mr Burnham himself admitted it may take a decade to produce results and acknowledged that whilst ‘not taking risks with the public finances’, he will also have to intervene to ‘give Britain some breathing space as soon as I can’. Boris Johnson asked for ten years to ‘level up’ Britain and got three. Keir Starmer sought a ‘decade of national renewal’ and got two. Mr Burnham and his tight team had better get a move on. No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. 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