Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, gave a major speech on 28 June 2026 outlining his vision for how Britain should be governed. He is widely expected to become the next Prime Minister after Keir Starmer announced his resignation earlier in June — less than two years into his time leading the country.

Burnham's main idea is simple: move power away from London and give it to people running towns, cities, and regions instead. According to Manchester Evening News, he wants to move some government operations out of the capital entirely. Both Reuters and AP called this a major change to how British politics works.

He gave the speech at Manchester's People's History Museum — a place that celebrates working people and grassroots movements in British history. That choice was deliberate. Burnham has been Mayor of Greater Manchester since 2017 and has spent nearly a decade showing that cities can solve problems better when they make their own decisions instead of waiting for approval from Westminster, the seat of central government in London. By choosing this museum, he was saying this is about principle: letting communities decide things for themselves, not just moving paperwork around.

Why is this a big deal? For over a decade, British governments have given some power to local areas, but always carefully. Mayors get some authority, but not much. Cities negotiate individual deals with central government. And London always keeps tight control of the money — local councils and regions cannot raise much of their own revenue. Burnham wants to change that structure fundamentally. His plan is more like how Scotland governs itself through its own parliament, or how Germany works, where major regions have real power and real budgets.

The timing matters too. Starmer's early departure leaves Labour choosing a new leader without the confidence that voters still back their policies. Burnham comes into this race as the clear favourite, but his devolution message also does something clever: it shows he thinks differently from Starmer without attacking him directly. He is staking out his own ground.

The real challenge comes next. Governments have promised devolution before and then not delivered. The biggest obstacle is money. Local authorities in England depend almost entirely on grants from central government to function. They cannot raise much money of their own. Talking about empowering local leaders means nothing unless you actually let them control their own budgets. Whether Burnham's plan includes real changes to how money flows from Westminster to regions — details that were not fully published when he gave the speech — will decide whether this is a genuine plan or just campaign talk.

For now, Burnham has made clear what he thinks Britain's government should do first if he becomes Prime Minister: hand more power to the people running the places where people actually live.