Property expert Kirstie Allsopp launched a sharp attack on Prime Minister Andy Burnham, accusing him of deliberately fostering a damaging North-South divide across Britain. In a thread posted on X late Monday, Allsopp drew on 26 years of experience finding homes for people in every county.
She wrote: "I’ve seen that Blackpool & Weston-Super-Mare have similar issues, and that Harrogate & Bath do too, I know that some areas have levels of deprivation which break your heart, and that others have developed & changed & are now thriving." She criticised council tax as unfair and stamp duty as "madness," but rejected a property-value tax as no better.
Accusation of fostering division
Allsopp's central charge was directed at Burnham's approach. She wrote: "Having a PM who seems to be fostering a North South divide is a very bad idea, we have enough division as it is." She closed with a geography lesson, noting John o’ Groats is 275 miles from Edinburgh, Land’s End is 281 miles from Westminster, yet Manchester sits only 178 miles from the Houses of Parliament. She added: "A little more geography might help."
Burnham's No10 North plans
The intervention lands amid Burnham's early push to rebalance power away from London. After succeeding Sir Keir Starmer, the former Greater Manchester mayor opened "No 10 North" in Manchester and has floated plans to hand a share of income tax revenues to England’s metro mayors for local growth and infrastructure. Critics, including some MPs and economists, warn the model risks creating a two-tier system. Around half of England’s population lives outside mayoral areas; reports have flagged Cornwall as potentially the biggest loser from the proposed overhaul.
Allsopp had already flagged the West Country risk the previous day in response to coverage of the tax plans. She wrote: "Surprise, surprise. Burnham was also going to screw the West Country, he hasn’t got a clue about who really struggles and who doesn’t, this blanket ‘North’ obsession is wrong on so many levels."
Mixed reaction on X
Reaction on X was swift and mixed. Some users backed Allsopp’s call for nuance, arguing that poverty exists in southern coastal towns and rural areas just as it does in the North, and that successive governments had long tilted investment southwards. Others insisted the North had been left behind for decades and that Burnham’s focus merely corrected a historic imbalance rather than inventing division. A few accused the presenter of defending southern privilege; others said any crude regional framing risked repeating the bitterness of the Brexit divide.
Burnham has repeatedly framed "No 10 North" as a conduit to push power and growth into every part of the country, not solely the North West. Supporters point to stubborn regional productivity gaps and argue centralised Whitehall decision-making has failed places from Blackpool to the South West. Opponents counter that within-region inequalities often dwarf the North-South gap, and that housing costs mean London itself has high poverty rates after rents.
