“Britain is in a profoundly depressed and bewildered state….. a deeply divided country……people are desperately looking for a lead…… Westminster is increasingly seen as irrelevant… Westminster and Whitehall are going to have to surrender some of their power.” Those words were written by Paddy Ashdown more than 30 years ago but could equally have come from Michael Hesletine, Tony Blair or Andy Burnham.
Before them there was a 1969 report into English local government which recommended many local authorities should be replaced by about 60 unitary authorities so the recognition that central government is not the answer to Britian’s problems but devolution could be is neither new nor a party political issue. Ashdown knew it and chronicled it in his book Beyond Westminster, Heseltine knew it but says ‘it took a riot’ for anything to change. David Cameron tried ‘The Big Society’ idea and Boris Johnson Levelling Up but neither with any true commitment.
Think tanks, academics, commentators and politicians across the board know there is an intrinsic strength in local communities, that people are imaginative, resilient and committed – borne out by the effectiveness and agility in local responses during Covid. So the promise from Andy Burnham for a devolution revolution should be welcomed across the broad centre left of politics.
The way Burnham responded to Kemi Badenoch’s catty comments about his appearance suggest that PMQs will be harder for her – a woman apparently possessing neither a sense of humour nor empathy. Support from Heseltine and Burnham’s previous working relationship with Andy Street might give the more centrist Tories a boost. Reform’s broken record will continue to play but whether it’ll be Farage spinning the discs remains to be seen. But what of the Lib Dems and Greens? Both parties saw their votes squeezed to help Burnham win Makerfield but a loose coalition to stop Reform in a by-election isn’t carte blanche for a Burnham government.
There are clear areas of common ground on a number of issues but also opportunities for Ed Davey to hold Burnham’s feet to the fire – on Europe, PR, devolution that recognises the South and South West as much as the North of England, renationalisation of utilities and above all the premise that until local or regional government can borrow against and raise local taxes to replace national ones and spend according to their own local priorities, ‘decentralisation’ will become as meaningless as levelling up.
These core issues are essential to the Lib Dems who are also willing to collaborate for the common good. That could help Burnham not just with his recalcitrant backbench MPs but in a future coalition should the next election produce a hung parliament. The Greens have an impressive Westminster leader in Ellie Chowns but Zack Polanski is a Marmite figure to many on the more moderate wing of the Green Party and plans to challenge Burnham as continuity Starmer.
Helsetine’s advice to Andy Burnham is to be bold and move fast – there is the potential for a coalition of the willing across the centre left to support him and that could change the course of the country and its political parties for the next generation.
