Andy Burnham’s plan for a “No 10 in the North” is an “important gesture in the right direction”, leading devolution proponent Lord Heseltine has said.
The Tory grandee, who was the first to call for directly elected mayors in 1991, said it could be “very beneficial” to “our entire economy” if the presumptive next prime minister delivered on the broad vision he set out on Monday.
He described the former Greater Manchester mayor as “the manifestation of the dream” behind work by the Conservatives under Lord Cameron, together with Labour, to push power out of Whitehall.
Mr Burnham, who looks set to enter Downing Street within weeks, used a speech on Monday to pledge to “rewire” the British state with greater decision-making handed to local leaders.
His flagship proposal was the creation of an outpost of 10 Downing Street based in Manchester, which would serve as the “nerve centre” through which to deliver priorities including reindustrialisation and redistributing power across the UK.
The plan also got the backing of Housing Secretary Steve Reed, who said it was a “great idea” as he threw his weight behind the Makerfield MP’s pledge to “go further and faster” on devolution.
Mr Reed said Sir Keir Starmer’s Government had “made a fantastic start, but Andy has made clear he wants to go further and faster, and I fully support that”.
Lord Heseltine backed the proposal of a “No 10 in the North”, but suggested that focusing the unit on decentralisation would matter more than its location.
Asked about the plans in an interview with the Press Association, he said: “The critical thing is to have a Prime Minister who is committed to the devolution agenda, and without that, the various components of power in Whitehall will fragment and resist.
“Creating a powerful No 10 unit, whether it’s in Manchester or in London or anywhere else, is an important gesture in the right direction.”
He described Manchester as “probably the most effective example of what David Cameron began to introduce” with devolution reforms under the stewardship of then-communities secretary Greg Clark.
“Andy is the present manifestation of the dream that people like me had when we started the journey to devolution,” the former Tory deputy prime minister said.
But he warned against proposals to hand local leaders the power to set and retain business rates in their area, which Mr Burnham has reportedly been advised to consider, arguing that differences in revenue at a local level must be balanced out by some intervention from central Government.
“If I was advising Andy Burnham now I’d say look, don’t tinker around with local income tax or local rates, get on with the job of generating wealth, and that is basically using capital funds,” he said.
Lord Heseltine, who in 2012 authored a major report that served as the blueprint for devolution policies pursued by Lord Cameron’s government, said he had a “very good relationship” with Mr Burnham in his former role as metro mayor.
“It’s very important, and Andy Burnham, I thought, made a very sensible remark when he said he’s going to reach out across the political divide,” he said.
Asked about the tone of Mr Burnham’s speech more broadly, Lord Heseltine said: “I thought the message was accurate. Tell the truth, don’t get involved in committing what you can’t deliver, and recognise we’re all in this together.
“This is not a public or private sector monopoly, it is mobilising and enthusing people up and down the power structure, and that means you have to take a broad view, and I thought that Andy Burnham expressed that clearly.”
He added: “Certainly to me, I’ve been involved in this devolution agenda all my political life, what he was saying made sense, and if he now carries it through with determination, we could find a very beneficial consequence for all our political parties, and our entire economy.”
Despite welcoming the prospect of cross-party cooperation, Lord Heseltine said he believed Labour and the Tories should both work to “expose” Reform UK, which he describes as an “extremist” proposition.
And he welcomed Mr Burnham’s Makerfield by-election victory as “a very substantial advantage for those of us who believe in the dangers of Reform.”
“Nigel Farage set out to appear as (Donald) Trump’s vicar in Britain but is now more likely to be seen as his relic,” he said.
A Reform UK spokesperson said: ‘This is the same old tired, establishment smear we’ve heard for years from out-of-touch grandees like Lord Heseltine. If Labour and the Conservatives want to form an alliance, good luck to them.’
Mr Reed, seen so far as an arch Starmer loyalist, said he hoped Mr Burnham would be installed in No 10 “as quickly as possible” by the end of July as he enjoyed “very widespread support amongst the Parliamentary Labour Party”.
