'Best day of my life': Andy Burnham hails opening of 'No 10 North' and hits back at critics calling it a 'gimmick'
The new Prime Minister said he wants to create a Britain that lets people "turn things around for themselves and make changes"
Andy Burnham has described the unveiling of the "Number 10 North" as the best day of his life in his first speech from the Manchester base as Prime Minister.
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The new PM is expected to work at the offices, located at the city's Heron House, once each week during his premiership as part of his move to balance power away from Westminster.
Speaking as he opened the new centre on Friday at the end of his first week in office, Mr Burnham said he wants to get "get Britain hoping again".
He said: "I cannot tell you what a proud moment this is. I think this might be the best day of my life.
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"I'm not joking either. I know you think I am, but I’m not.
"Things are just completely coming full circle here for me, and 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."
Mr Burnham flew into Manchester from Glasgow after attending the opening of the Commonwealth Games on Thursday.
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, this is the because the 80s had turned into the 90s, there wasn’t much.
"That really is an experience that I’ve never forgotten. It's true of places all over the country to get on in life, you had to leave where you where you were because things weren’t here.
"The country has always been a little like that, hasn’t it? That opportunity has not been evenly spread around the country.
"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, and the other English cities are doing through devolution."
The Prime Minister has faced criticism for the installation of the northern base which he was keen to dispel during the speech.
"There’ll be many voices out there, I can hear them all already, often London based, but not exclusively," he said.
"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?'
"[But] 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."
After announcing his cabinet on Monday, it emerged some of his top ministers including Angela Rayner are also to work from No 10 North.
Education Secretary Lucy Powell, Housing Secretary Angela Rayner, and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Louise Haigh, are reportedly set to be based in the north.
A spokesperson for the PM previously said the running of No 10 North will be covered by existing Cabinet Office budgets and that there will be no additional cost to taxpayers.
The former Manchester Mayor previously said he will seek to establish the hub as "the dominant driver of the UK’s economy".