Andy Burnham Outlines Largest Whitehall Power Transfer in June 29 Speech

Andy Burnham delivered a speech to the nation on June 29 outlining plans for the biggest transfer of power out of Whitehall in modern times. GB News reported that Burnham stated the time has come to build the broadest possible coalition of people to lift Britain back up to where we all want it to be.

Burnham said after 10 years of political turbulence since Brexit and 20 years of falling living standards since the 2008 financial crash, Westminster has not been working for people and has not been working for a very long time.

The address focused on devolution to move decision-making from London and Whitehall back into the regions. Labour MP Alex Ballinger endorsed the plan in an interview with GB News on the same day. Ballinger said he is really optimistic about the speech and described Burnham as talking about devolution that moves power out of London and Whitehall back into the regions.

Ballinger added that decisions are better made closer to people and that greater devolution should have happened a long time ago. Ballinger stated the plan would give the West Midlands more power over transport, skills, and decision-making that affects people's lives.

He said the approach involves moving existing spending decisions from the Treasury to Manchester, the Midlands, and the south west so local people can decide how the money is spent on their priorities, rather than increasing total spending.

Ballinger also said Burnham is expected to deliver a speech on immigration in the coming weeks that will build on work by Shabana Mahmood and aim to make the system fair for British people. Ballinger noted a bit more consensus and working across the aisle is probably what the country needs.