Andy Burnham sets out plan for radical overhaul of Britain in speech pitching for 10 years as PM

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Jun 29, 2026 - 11:53

Andy Burnham sets out plan for radical overhaul of Britain in speech pitching for 10 years as PM

Andy Burnham has pledged to bring back "hope" to politics while he laid out a 10-year plan to fix Britain.

The Labour leadership frontrunner vowed that he hopes to "lift Britain back up to where we all want it to be" and "give the nation the circuit-breaker it needs".

Speaking from Manchester, Mr Burnham outlined plans for the "biggest transfer of power out of Whitehall in modern times" in a wider regional power-sharing arrangement.

Since the financial crash, Westminster is "not working" and has left the UK "stuck in a rut", Mr Burnham said, adding it left politicians resorting to "finger-pointing political point-scoring".

Instead, he called for the "broadest possible coalition of people to lift Britain back up to where we all want it to be".

He said: "The time has come to build the broadest possible coalition of people to lift Britain back up to where we all want it to be.

"What hope can we have that it will be different this time? That’s the question I would be asking if I was a voter right now.

"After 10 years of political turbulence since Brexit and 20 years of falling living standards since the 2008 financial crash, Westminster has not been working for people, and it has not 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, and clearly we cannot go on like this. My generation of politicians, including me, must take responsibility."

Part of the plans entail a "No10 North" to fuel long-term economic renewal spanning across the country, far and wide.

He demanded raising living standards "for every single person across this land" by boosting the British economy.

Echoing many of his own opponents, Mr Burnham also ceded that public trust in politicians has eroded over time, and that he, along with others of his generation, must take accountability.

Other Prime Ministers who have whipped up plans for a decade in power have fallen well short of the ambitious milestone, including Boris Johnson, Theresa May and Mr Burnham’s likely predecessor, Sir Keir Starmer.

David Cameron has come the closest in recent years, managing six years as Prime Minister before stepping aside in 2016.