Andy Burnham spent his first day in the new No10 North on Friday as his stepped up his landmark devolution reforms.
Chancellor John Healey, Housing Secretary Angela Rayner and senior Cabinet Office minister Louise Haigh were among the ministers who attended a National Economic Council meeting which also included mayors and business chiefs.
“I think this might be the best day of my life,” he told staff at the new northern Government headquarters at Heron House in Manchester city centre.
The HQ has been set up to drive Mr Burnham’s devolution revolution which could see tens of thousands of jobs moved out of Whitehall.
Trumpeting his reforms, the new Prime Minister stressed that “opportunity has not been evenly spread around the country and not all places have felt that they're part of the national story”.
He added: “That is what this Government is going to work every single day to change, and that is what No10 North is all about: putting power in every postcode so that people can turn things around for themselves and make changes just as this great city has done and the other English cities are doing through devolution.
“No10 North is as much for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as it is for the regions of England,” he explained further while not making clear if he counted London as an English region.
He concluded: “I just want to finish on this point. There'll be many voices out there. I can hear them all already, often London-based...they like to say, oh, this will just be another, the new Levelling Up or another sort of short-lived gimmick.”
Rejecting criticism of the cost of having two centres of Government, he stressed that civil servants from Manchester have had for years to travel down to London for meetings.
“So actually, isn't it better that we have a North Pole that balances the South Pole of our country, where power will always be concentrated, but at least it creates that sense of a more balanced country,” he added.
Responding to the government shake-up, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch dismissed No10 North as a "gimmick".
She stressed: “It does not make decision-making any better, it's just creating another branch of the civil service in a different place".
Mr Burnham has already unveiled in his first days in office a series of measures to ease the cost of living including axing VAT from electricity bills, a £2 cap on bus fares outside of London and a pledge to end rough sleeping.
However, it is not yet clear how he will fund even some of these measures after one of Sir Keir Starmer’s closest allies, the former Chief Secretary to No10 Darren Jones, revealed that there was no funding nailed down to pay for the cheaper electricity bills.
Mr Burnham has also signalled that he may raise tax on the wealthy to pay for a cut for the less wealth off, possibly by increasing the £12,570 threshold at which people start paying income tax.
Housing Secretary Angela Rayner also left open the door to a new property tax, to replace council tax and stamp duty, which could land London with an extra £7.5 billion bill.
She ruled out rent controls despite Mr Burnham saying just days ago that the Government would consider a rent freeze as part of moves to reduce the cost of living.
Her stance was criticised by Green Party leader Zack Polanski and former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
