Burnham demands stronger state control in swipe at Blair

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Andy Burnham has called for sweeping state intervention in a direct challenge to Sir Tony Blair’s vision for Labour, arguing that four decades of neoliberal economics have failed working people and deepened Britain’s divides.

The Mayor of Greater Manchester, who is standing in next month’s Makerfield by-election as part of a bid to position himself for a future Labour leadership contest, said Thatcherite economics and market-led policies had left communities behind and pushed mainstream politics towards collapse.

In a 1,500-word essay for The Times, Burnham said Greater Manchester’s economic success had come from a “very interventionist” model, insisting: “You can’t just leave it to the market.”

He warned Britain was drifting towards “toxic, divisive politics like the US”, and said falling living standards and the cost-of-living crisis had fuelled anger across the country.

Read more: ‘We’ve been vindicated’: Sir Keir Starmer fights back after Tony Blair slams Labour policies

Read more: Battle for Labour: Burnham and Streeting hit back at Blair's savage attack on Government

The intervention comes after Sir Tony Blair warned Labour against a “dangerous” shift to the left under a future leader, while criticising government policy on workers’ rights, net zero and tax.

In his 5,700-word essay, Sir Tony criticised Labour’s flagship workers’ rights legislation and above-inflation uplift to the minimum wage, while calling for the party to abandon its net zero targets, cut welfare and rethink the pensions triple lock.

Sir Keir Starmer has dismissed Blair’s criticism, saying his government’s approach has been vindicated by improvements in the economy, NHS waiting lists and immigration.

He said he agreed with Sir Tony that it was “right to talk about policy, it’s right to talk about ideas”.

But he added: “I don’t agree that the policy choices of this Government weren’t the right policy choices given what we inherited – a very different situation in 2024 to 1997.

“And dealing with what we had to turn around, the policy choices, we’re vindicated by them because those changes have happened.”

Burnham’s essay marks a clear escalation in Labour’s internal battle.

In an ostensible swipe at Sir Keir, Burnham said “mainstream politics hasn’t delivered answers”.

However, the mayor reserves most of his criticism for Blair.

While he said the Labour government he served in “did many great things”, he argued it failed to break from the direction set by Margaret Thatcher.

He added: “This has given us 40 years of neoliberalism and the simple truth is this: it has not been kind to communities in Makerfield and those like them across the UK.

"Trickle-down economics did not in the end trickle down very much at all.”

Burnham argued the biggest gap in Blair’s analysis was the long squeeze on living standards since the 2008 financial crash, which he blamed on deregulation.

“The fall in the living standards of millions, and the reality that life has got harder for most year on year since the financial crash in 2008, is, I believe, the gaping omission in Blair’s analysis,” he said.

He said that decline had driven political turmoil in Britain and across the West, hollowing out support for traditional parties on both left and right.

Rejecting Blair’s call for lighter regulation to boost growth, Burnham said the financial crash itself showed the danger of weakening oversight.

He said growth in places outside London would only come through “strong public control and direction”, with more power over transport, housing, energy, water and education.

Pointing to Greater Manchester’s move to bring buses back under public control, Burnham said it showed how the state could step in where the market had failed – describing it as reversing “one of the biggest Thatcher legacies”.

He also backed a tougher line on small boat crossings and criticised the use of asylum accommodation contracts in some of Britain’s poorest communities, signalling support for breaking private sector deals used to house migrants.

Burnham said Whitehall was too centralised to fix Britain’s deep regional inequalities and called for a major transfer of power, money and decision-making to local leaders.

He added: “When politics can’t fix something as simple as a pothole, you have a very serious problem indeed. The public are losing faith and looking elsewhere for answers.”