All hail the king of the North

EDITOR’S COMMENT Whether you believe that Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham should have taken government’s £60m offer when originally tabled, I defy anyone not to be moved by the statements he has made over the past few days. His speech on Tuesday as he revealed that government had walked away from funding negotiations was the most heartfelt and honest oration I have heard from a politician in decades. This was a man of the people fighting for the people. This was a man who knows he is a have, fighting for the have nots. Maybe, as the six local Tory MPs state in their letter to Burnham, he was putting businesses at risk of closure through his “dogmatic stance”, maybe he was putting “hundreds of thousand of people in jeopardy”. But has he really failed in his duty to the people of the Greater Manchester city region? He has not backed down and despite walking away from an offer £5m below the sum he calculated the 10 boroughs that make up Greater Manchester needed to survive tier-three restrictions and running the risk of getting nothing (or just £22m) from government, the PM has made good on the £60m. And something tells me £5m more will make its way to Greater Manchester, eventually. I’m not from Manchester. I’m really southern and for many years, I’m ashamed to admit, even Watford felt northern to me. I’m also not on the breadline. I could survive on 80% of my income. So it’s not for me to say whether Andy Burnham’s refusal to accept government’s offer as it came through was right or wrong. But I can applaud him for the fight. For showing everyone that you do not have to bow down. That if you believe in something, if you really care, you absolutely have to give it your all. That, in his words, you don’t have to “walk on by”. That you shouldn’t. I do applaud him for being unafraid to call out false promises. To point out failures. For being passionate and unapologetic. For saying this: “Is this a game of poker? Are they playing poker with people’s lives through a pandemic? Is that what this is about? Are they piling pressure on people to accept the lowest figure that they can get away with? Is that what this is about? Is that how they are running this country? Is this a government committed to levelling up this country? That’s what they told people in this city, people who drive those taxis, who work in the pubs, many of them who may have voted for them. They said to them they would level up. What we have seen today is a deliberate act of levelling down.” Devolution is about sharing the deck of cards, not holding on to the best ones so you can deal the killer hand every single time. Devolution is about understanding that the guy at the top of the tree doesn’t always know what is best for the branches. Its about trusting those who are closest to the coalface to know and do best. It’s about giving regions a champion. It’s about levelling up and Burnham has just forced central government to commit. He will have set a precedent. Expect others to follow in his footsteps. What we have heard Burnham say over these past few days are not the words of a man putting his ego ahead of anything else. They are words of passion. Words of anger and words of love for his region and its people. They are the words of the type of leader we all need. Burnham has surely now created a bond so strong with the real people of Greater Manchester (and beyond) that they will fight this together and fight it harder than ever before. They will not walk on by. They will stand strong and they will survive. All hail the King of the North. From the archive: The EG Interview: Andy Burnham on giving people hope, help and ambition To send feedback, e-mail samantha.mcclary@egi.co.uk or tweet @samanthamcclary or @estatesgazette Photo by James Veysey/Shutterstock (10966498av)