Angela Rayner Backs Andy Burnham's Devolution Vision, Calls for Deeper Reforms

Angela Rayner has said the next prime minister must go further in giving power to communities, as she backed Andy Burnham's "vision" for devolution.

The former Deputy Prime Minister suggested the Labour government under Sir Keir Starmer has "too often left the impression" that it was "defending the status quo rather than challenging it".

In a speech on Wednesday, Rayner argued it is a "time for boldness" as Labour would not defeat the challenge from Nigel Farage's Reform UK "with caution".

Rayner's remarks came after senior minister Darren Jones said he liked the idea of "No 10 North" put forward by Burnham, who is the favourite to replace Sir Keir as prime minister.

Burnham suggested the creation of new Downing Street team based in Manchester to help deliver his aims.

Jones, the chief secretary to the prime minister, also urged Sir Keir's successor to "strengthen the centre" as well by creating a department for the prime minister in London.

Burnham is widely expected to become the next prime minister later this month when the Labour leadership contest concludes, following Sir Keir's resignation last week.

Launching his Labour leadership bid in a speech on Monday, Burnham said he wanted to redistribute power across the UK to "drive good growth in every postcode".

Burnham's core pledge was to devolve power to local communities away from senior civil servants in Whitehall, which he said had "blocked" progress in Greater Manchester where he had been mayor.

"It is time for Whitehall to accept that growth cannot be ordered from the top down - it can only be nurtured from the bottom up," Burnham said.

Rayner highlighted her efforts in government to further devolve power to regions in England, but said there needs to be "much deeper cultural changes" in central government.

Speaking at an event for the New Economics Foundation think tank, Rayner said "Whitehall empires hoard their own power" and "we must rewire England by devolving power and money to the country as a whole".

Rayner said she experienced "institutional resistance to fiscal devolution throughout" her time in office, adding it could be "overcome".

She cited moves to give English regional mayors the power to charge tourists a tax for staying overnight in their areas.

Rayner added the "devolution revolution" will only "reach its full potential if central government changes too, with No 10 driving it as a core mission".

Transport, children's social care and derelict buildings were raised by Rayner as areas in which mayors should be backed to deliver.

In her concluding remarks, Rayner outlined her hopes for achieving a "fairer future" and said the work has started.

She said: "The scale of the challenge demands we go further and faster.

"This week Andy Burnham put forward a vision of good growth in every British postcode and hope in every heart. An economy that serves people, their place and our planet - not the other way around."

Earlier, Jones told the Remaking the State conference in London that Burnham had "rightly set out" how "overcentralisation of power and bureaucracy in Westminster can stifle growth, decision-making and opportunity".

"I just say to Whitehall with the direction the political winds are blowing, I think this is a clear warning," Jones said.

"Devolution must mean devolution, not duplication."

Jones has overseen structural changes to the machinery of government in his role as chief secretary to the prime minister, alongside enforcing policy delivery.

In January, Jones announced a plan to "rewire Whitehall" with initiatives including reducing bureaucratic checks and setting up taskforces to drive through policy priorities.

He has often complained that government is not operating effectively and needs to change, a critique he repeated at the Remaking the State conference.

Jones said reforming how government works can "distract the system from delivering on everyday issues the public faces" while also presenting opportunities.

"We either take this opportunity to remake the state and show the public we can get the job done, or we risk handing it to the populists who just want to tear it all down and leave people to fend for themselves," Jones said.

But Jones's focus on delivery teams has been criticised as "heavily centralising" in an article, external co-authored by Patrick Diamond, a former head of policy planning in No 10 Downing Street.

The article says such an approach "regards delivery as the transmission of control from the centre to the front line, rather than building capacity in the institutions, localities and services that have to sustain improvement once the attention of the centre has moved on".

Burnham has yet to set out how his plan to bring about "the biggest rebalancing of power our country has ever seen" would work alongside Jones's reformed Whitehall.

His proposed new No 10 North in Manchester, Burnham said, would make "power flow" across the country, with a focus on essential utilities, reindustrialisation and regeneration.