It’s not just Conservative politicians popping up at the Tory party conference this year: Labour’s Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has appeared at some fringe events to wax lyrical about the successes of devolution, his hopes for a Manchester tourist tax and reform of council tax. But just a week after the Labour Party conference, Burnham didn’t gloss over the rather, er, frosty welcome he received in Liverpool. ‘I’ll probably get a better reception here than I did last week,’ he quipped at the Centre for Cities event.
Burnham wouldn’t rate the performance of the Labour government out of ten – but he did pack a few subtle digs into his discussion about Sir Keir Starmer and his cronies back in London. He continually emphasised that he was ‘place first, not party first’ and added: ‘I am relentless in being place first.’ Mr S is sure his party leadership would agree, after his rather explosive interview – widely read by many as a soft leadership pitch – the other week.
On the subject of devolution, Burnham was a little more direct, complaining that that:
It’s still patchy in terms of the extent to which parties back devolution. I think there’s still a mix of views, and that’s true of government as well. It’s patchy.
He then went on to fume:
I have to spend part of every single working week in this job remaking the case for devolution to Whitehall. You would think I wouldn’t have to do that anymore after ten years of growth – but sadly, we do.
Burnham added:
I think it’s something to do with power. Some don’t like the idea of places like this answering back a bit more forcefully than perhaps we were able to do in the past.
Talk about a double entendre, eh? Reading between the lines, some might conclude that the Manchester mayor is more than a little annoyed about the pushback he’s received from the Labour party higher-ups. Punchy stuff…
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