No 10 North has opened its doors for the Prime Minister's first meeting at his Manchester offices. Andy Burnham called it the 'best day of my life' while speaking to staff at Heron House, near Manchester’s Albert Square, on Friday morning.
Burnham's Emotional Speech
Speaking to staff after arriving, Mr Burnham said: 'I cannot tell you what a proud moment this is. I think this might be the best day of my life. I'm not joking. I know you think I am, but I'm not. Things are just completely coming full circle here, for me to be here with you all in the heart of Manchester this Friday morning at the end of a fairly big week is just everything to me.'
He added: 'It’s almost exactly 35 years since I left this city as a recently-graduated young man who couldn’t find a job in the city. It was in a pretty bad place at that time, it’s fair to say, because the 80s had turned into the 90s, there wasn’t much. That really is an experience that I’ve never forgotten, my generation of people growing up here. And it’s true of places all over the country to get on in life, you had to leave where you were because things weren’t here.'
A Vision for Balanced Power
'The country has always been a little like that, hasn’t it? That opportunity has not been evenly spread around the country, and not all places have felt that they are part of the national story, and that is what this Government is going to work every single day to change,' Mr Burnham said. 'And that is what No 10 North is all about: putting power in every postcode so that people can turn things around for themselves and make changes, just as this great city has done.'
The new northern base for the PM is also home to GCHQ’s Manchester and North West hub. The PM said Whitehall resistance to devolution is 'over for good' ahead of the historic moment, reports the Manchester Evening News. Mr Burnham is expected to work from the site in Manchester once each week during his premiership. On Friday, he will chair a meeting of the National Economic Council, a Cabinet committee first launched in 2008 to respond to economic challenges.
Defending the Cost
Earlier he defended the cost of setting up No 10 North, saying many of his critics – 'often London based' – will see the project as a 'gimmick'. He said: 'There’ll be many voices out there, I can hear them all already, often London based, but not exclusively… They like to say, “Oh, this will just be the new levelling up, or another sort of short-lived gimmick”, and they’ll also say “What’s it going to cost?”'
Mr Burnham continued: 'What does it cost for everybody to troop down to London every time there’s a meeting when you need to make an argument about something? What does that cost? So actually, isn’t it better that we have a North Pole that balances the South Pole of our country, where power will always be concentrated? At least it creates that sense of a more balanced country, and that big things can be done from here.'
