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Andy Burnham plans to move the Prime Minister's office to Manchester

2026-06-24 17:54:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Andy Burnham is planning to move parts of the No. 10 operation to Manchester, as part of moves to decentralise power from London.

The Makerfield MP will say next week that he wants to move parts of the prime minister's office to the north if he becomes prime minister later this year.

The move, which was first reported by the Financial Times, will be included in a speech next week, where he will explain how he plans to implement the radical decentralization he has promised.

A spokesman for Burnham declined to comment.

Andy Burnham, wearing glasses and a white polo shirt, gestures as he speaks into microphones, with supporters holding campaign banners behind him.
The former mayor of Greater Manchester will next week deliver his first major policy speech since winning the seat of Makerfield.

With the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, having announced his intention to resign and former Health Secretary Wes Streeting having confirmed that he will not stand for the Labour Party leadership, Burnham is the overwhelming favourite to enter the 10th seat next month.

So far he has said little about the policies he intends to pursue, although allies say he intends to put decentralization at their heart.

The UK has some of the worst regional inequalities of any developed country, which Burnham says is partly because political power is too centralised in London. He has promised to govern according to a "Makerfield test" in which policies are measured against how they would affect his young voters.

Burnham has previously argued for each area of ??the UK to be given its own devolved home rule, allowing all regions to elect a mayor if they choose. In a book published with Liverpool Mayor Steve Rotheram two years ago, he also called for a "basic law" that would require the government to equalize living standards across the country.

However, it is not clear whether he intends to follow the advice of one of his economic advisers, former Bank of England economist Andy Haldane, who has called for the separation of the Treasury and the creation of a new growth ministry in the north.

While 10 Downing Street is undoubtedly the most famous address in the country, successive prime ministers have complained that it is not suitable as the centre of a modern government. Staff are often crammed into rooms scattered around the 300-year-old house, while most government work takes place around the corner in the Cabinet Office, which is connected to 9 Downing Street by a corridor.

No. 10 officials were preparing a plan to create a new prime minister's office earlier this year, which would have merged aspects of Downing Street and the Cabinet Office, but the plan was scrapped after disastrous local election results for the Labour Party.

However, the government has had more success in relocating other departments, with nine of them joining forces to open a new “economic campus” in Darlington. Construction began this year on a new five-story office in the northeastern city that will become the permanent base for 1,600 civil servants.