Andy Burnham Pledges Mass Renationalisation if He Becomes Labour Leader

Andy Burnham has signaled that a program of large-scale renationalisation would form the centerpiece of his policy platform if he succeeds Keir Starmer as prime minister.

The Greater Manchester mayor is seeking a return to Westminster through a by-election in Makerfield, and has been widely expected to challenge Starmer for the Labour leadership if elected. He is viewed as the favored candidate of the party’s soft left.

Labour has not officially selected its candidate yet, but Downing Street indicated it would not block Burnham’s candidacy, unlike in the Gorton and Denton by-election in east Manchester earlier this year.

The party has been in disarray since its poor performance in last week’s local elections. Several government ministers, including Health Secretary Wes Streeting, have resigned this week, and others have privately urged Starmer to outline a departure timeline.

Speaking to Channel 4 News, Burnham said that “deindustrialisation and privatisation” had left areas like Makerfield “without good jobs and people unable to afford the basics.”

“We need a different path completely. What is that path? Put more things back under stronger public control: energy, housing, water, transport,” Burnham said.

“I’ve done that with buses in Greater Manchester. I was the first to do it. Margaret Thatcher deregulated them … and then they just work for the private shareholders and not for the paying public,” he added.

“I put them back under public control with the £2 fares, so you take that principle and apply it to energy and apply to the water – that’s what I think we need to do,” Burnham said.

“The country gave away its control with basic things that people depend upon every day and that was a big mistake in my opinion,” he said.

Burnham previously represented the neighboring constituency of Leigh before being elected as Greater Manchester mayor in 2017. He has been working for months to plot a route back to parliament, with supporters approaching several MPs in the northwest to reinstate him in the Commons.

A possible path to Westminster emerged on Thursday when Makerfield MP Josh Simons announced he would step aside to allow Burnham to contest a by-election.

Burnham said he and Simons had “both felt the frustration of facing a Westminster system that just does not have answers for these streets, these communities.”

“We both feel a big change is needed and I wouldn’t have just gone anywhere [to] carpet bag, you know, any old constituency. It matters to me that I have a connection – I live literally on the edge of this constituency. My kids went to school a few hundred yards down the road,” Burnham added.

“I know people here, I know how they think, how they feel. I want to do whatever I can to make Labour a party that they can believe in again, a party that’s solidly on the side of working-class people,” he said.

However, if officially selected as Labour’s candidate, Burnham faces a strong challenge from Reform UK, which won nearly 50% of the vote in the constituency’s eight council wards in last week’s elections.

“Our party needs to do better … I’m going to be really honest about that on doorsteps,” Burnham said.

“I’m not going to spend my time point-scoring. I would say no, I’m hearing you. We’re going to really change things and put the country on a different path,” he said.

“We’ve got to talk seriously about reindustrialising the north-west, getting those good jobs, changing education so it’s not all about the university route but it’s also about the technical paths for kids to get into those good jobs,” he said.

In a separate interview with the BBC, Burnham said deindustrialisation had begun in the 1980s when some central figures in Reform were “arch-Thatcherites.”

“That was devastating all of those years ago and communities were left with nothing,” he said.