You don’t have to be John Betjeman to know where this Labour story will end – because we’ve heard it before link Daily Telegraph 29/06/26 It’s a brave politician who chooses to give his first keynote speech in a museum, but for Andy Burnham it seemed somehow appropriate. For his entire speech was something of a museum piece, an artefact redolent of the Michael Foot days of Labour politics: strikes and trade union banners, class warfare in Parliament and ranting Leftists on the streets. The public sector, nationalisation, the unions, the state, splashing around public money – these are Burnham’s tools to make things better . We know how this story ends. After all, Burnham evoked the era himself, even daring to give Foot’s donkey jacket a mention. In perhaps the most revealing phrase of the speech, he identified the “foundations of working class aspiration” as a “council home” and “good technical education”, a post-war image if ever there was one: the Labour vision of vast num...
Incoming prime minister sets out his plan to boost the economy through devolution Daily Telegraph 28/06/26 Link Andy Burnham will set out a 10-year plan to transform the economy as he prepares to enter Downing Street. In a sign he intends to fight at least two elections as prime minister, Mr Burnham will argue on Monday that he needs a decade to overhaul Britain , strip power from Whitehall and deliver “good growth in every postcode”. He will lay out plans for a “No 10 North”, moving part of his operation outside Westminster to push through a radical programme of English devolution , transferring decisions over spending from mandarins in London to powerful regional mayors. In his first major speech since returning to Parliament in this month’s Makerfield by-election, Mr Burnham will commit to greater state control of Britain’s energy and water supplies. He will also pledge a new programme of council house building and infrastructure projects outside the South-East as part of eff...