Andy Burnham stood outside Number 10 on Monday and promised to make his premiership a “circuit breaker” for Britain.
Pledging the “biggest changes in the last 40 years”, the former Greater Manchester Mayor said he would create a new political and economic model, take power “into every postcode in the land” and set out a 10-year plan to transform the country. His first measures, aimed at easing cost-of-living pressures, are expected to be announced this week.
For Westminster, it marked another dramatic chapter in British politics but the moment might be even bigger for the North.
Burnham is not simply the latest occupant of Downing Street. He is the first Prime Minister whose political identity has been forged through English devolution rather than Westminster. His decade leading Greater Manchester transformed him from a former cabinet minister into one of the country’s most recognisable regional leaders, championing greater local control over transport, skills, housing and economic development.
Now he has the opportunity to test that philosophy on a national stage. But the question remains whether his arrival signals a genuine shift in Britain’s political and economic centre of gravity or whether the North is getting ahead of itself.
A different route to Number 10
Burnham has long argued that Britain is too centralised. In his first speech as Prime Minister, he blamed decades of centralisation and deindustrialisation for leaving many communities behind.
“We will make this moment a circuit breaker for Britain,” he said. “We will take power out of here and carry it into every postcode in the land, so that they can do more.”
It is a message that resonates across much of the North, where businesses have spent years arguing that decisions affecting regional economies are still too often made in Whitehall.
Over the past decade or two, however, the North has changed dramatically. The BBC’s move to Salford transformed the broadcasting landscape. Channel 4 established a significant presence in Leeds. Manchester has developed one of Europe’s fastest-growing technology ecosystems. Liverpool’s screen industry continues to attract major film and television productions, while cities including Sheffield, Newcastle and Leeds have strengthened their positions in advanced manufacturing, fintech, health innovation and digital technology.
Opportunity but not yet mission accomplished
For Katie Gallagher OBE, managing director of Manchester Digital and chair of the UK Tech Cluster Group, Burnham’s arrival represents recognition that economic growth does not have to flow from London.
“Andy Burnham becoming Prime Minister is significant for the North because he understands that growth does not only come from Whitehall or the City of London,” she said.
But she cautioned against assuming that political change alone will rebalance the economy.
“There is still a lot of work to do before power and investment are genuinely rebalanced,” she said. The North does not need more short-term pots of funding or programmes designed in London and then applied to places as an afterthought, it needs long-term investment, proper local delivery and a better understanding of how regional economies actually work.”
Gallagher argues that the North’s strengths already exist across AI, cyber security, fintech, health innovation, gaming, data, creative technology and advanced manufacturing. The challenge now is enabling those ecosystems to flourish.
“The barriers are well known – access to capital, skills, procurement, infrastructure and the way national programmes are designed and delivered. Too often, policy is built around institutions rather than ecosystems.”
A Prime Minister who understands regional business?
For Julaine Speight, co-owner of Manchester digital agency First Internet, Burnham’s greatest strength is practical experience.
“It represents something genuinely significant – not just a change of face, but the first time in a long time that the person running the country actually understands what it’s like to build something outside London,” she said. “As someone running a digital agency in Greater Manchester, I’ve watched him up close for years. Unlike most politicians who talk about the regions, he governed one.”
She believes Burnham has the instincts to begin shifting political and economic power, while acknowledging the scale of the task ahead.
“We know what Burnham is capable of at a city-region level… The structures that concentrate power in London didn’t build themselves overnight, and they won’t be dismantled in a single term. But if anyone has the instincts and the track record to start genuinely shifting the dial, it’s him.”
Speight also sees opportunities for the North’s creative and digital sectors if government backs regional clusters and accelerates AI adoption among SMEs.
“Most businesses our size are currently trying to work out how to use AI with no support and no resource. Fix that, and you unlock enormous productivity gains across the regions.”
Can Manchesterism scale?
Dr Tony Syme, macroeconomist at the University of Salford, believes Burnham’s experience in Greater Manchester offers clues to how he may govern nationally.
“As Mayor of Greater Manchester, he delivered tangible improvements to household budgets, bringing buses back under public control and capping single fares at £2. It was practical economics, focused on the everyday costs that matter to working families, and it worked.”
Syme says Burnham’s argument is rooted in addressing the long-term consequences of deindustrialisation through greater public control over essential services and investment in regional economies.
“The key signal, however, will be his choice of Chancellor,” he said. “The decision is reported to be between Ed Miliband and Shabana Mahmood, and it will tell us whether this is a government of energy transformation and public investment or one of fiscal continuity.”
His conclusion perhaps captures the significance of the moment better than any political slogan.
“Turning a city region around took a decade of patient, practical work. The whole country will now be watching to see if Manchesterism can scale.”
Technology must stay at the heart of government
While much of the debate has focused on devolution, technology leaders argue that innovation will ultimately determine whether Burnham can deliver the productivity gains Britain needs.
Gallagher says the North should become a national testbed for technology adoption, calling for stronger support for AI, digital skills and startup procurement. She also warned that any move to weaken the UK’s focus on science and technology would be a mistake.
“If the rumours about DSIT are true, abolishing it would be the wrong move at the wrong time. AI and emerging technologies are reshaping every sector, so we need stronger national leadership on technology, not a weaker or more fragmented approach.”
Professor Richard Whittle, Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Public Policy at the University of Salford, argues the debate needs to move beyond viewing AI simply as another technology policy.
“AI policy is economic policy,” he said.
“The meaningful questions are about productivity, labour markets, industrial strategy and ensuring that the benefits of AI are shared across people and places rather than becoming concentrated in a small number of sectors or organisations.”
He welcomed Burnham’s emphasis on place-based growth but warned that technology alone cannot solve decades of underinvestment.
“If we get those foundations right, AI will not simply make existing industries more productive; it can help build a more resilient, inclusive and competitive economy. But technology alone will never be enough. Sustainable growth depends on the strength of the economic system into which it is introduced.”
