Burnham takes UK premiership, signals radical devolution push

Andy Burnham has entered Downing Street as prime minister, using his first speech to promise a fundamental shift in how Britain is governed by moving power away from Westminster.

He pledged to give control over planning, business rates, transport and public services to local leaders, a structural change that would alter how infrastructure projects are funded and delivered. The new prime minister specifically cited plans by Steve Rotheram, the mayor of the Liverpool city region, to bring the Merseyrail network into public ownership by 2028.

Under proposals handed to the new government in recent weeks, mayors would gain the authority to appoint commissioners to oversee local schools, GPs and childcare providers. City leaders are also demanding control over technical education for 16 to 18-year-olds to break free from the constraints of the central Department for Education.

This decentralisation could go even further into economic infrastructure. Oliver Coppard, the mayor of South Yorkshire, believes Burnham could be “more radical than most people seem to think”. He stressed the importance of local public control of utilities such as energy and water.

Personal ties, public rules

Rotheram is widely viewed as the new prime minister’s closest political ally, a relationship forged through the decades-long battle for justice for the 97 Hillsborough victims. The 64-year-old former bricklayer, who helped rebuild the Falklands after the 1982 war, also served as a parliamentary aide to Jeremy Corbyn.

Despite this proximity, Rotheram dismissed speculation that he would leave his post to join the government or be appointed to the House of Lords. “There is all this speculation,” he said. “I’m gonna be Lord Rotheram of Kirkby, I’m going to be the tsar of such-and-such, I’m going to be the devo minister – all these wonderful things. Great, I wish someone would tell me.”

He called his current job the “pinch-me privilege of my life” and stressed that their bond, which began in 2008 during Liverpool’s year as European capital of culture, would not secure special treatment. “The exact same rules are there to stop Boris Johnson feathering the nests of his mates as they are to stop friendship being the only way to get projects delivered,” Rotheram said.

For the broader economy, the immediate impact of this leadership change will be determined by how quickly these regional powers are enacted. Moving decisions on growth, skills and utilities to what Coppard described as a “much more human scale” could redefine the investment landscape outside London.