No 10 North to take charge of economic growth, Burnham says

Press Association Reporters

Andy Burnham has said the new No 10 North will take responsibility for growth from the Treasury as part of his drive to push power out of Whitehall.

The Prime Minister suggested the Treasury would focus on controlling the public finances while his outpost of 10 Downing Street based in Manchester would lead the charge on boosting the economy.

In an interview with The Times, he said Chancellor John Healey was fully supportive of the move which he described as part of a “huge transfer of power”.

“There’s a job to be done around control of public finances. It’s just the dual job of growth and control of public finances (that) sometimes clouds the growth mission,” he said.

“And particularly having No 10 leading on that growth mission means you’ve got maximum power to unlock the blockages where they exist in the wider Whitehall system.”

The Manchester branch of Downing Street in Heron House is already up and running and officials have said it will cost taxpayers no extra money.

The Prime Minister is expected to work at the outpost once each week during his premiership, as part of his move to push power out of Westminster.

Reflecting on his time on office so far, Mr Burnham conceded the controversy over the early release of prisoners had led to a “bumpy” introduction to his premiership.

But he said Justice Secretary Alex Norris would present a “much better solution” on September 1 after the Government faced pressure to block two of Pc Andrew Harper’s killers from being freed in January under previous plans.

He said the biggest adjustment to life in No 10 was “the relentlessness of it and the scale of it”, adding that his initial policy offerings had not been “earth-shattering” but that the public “just want something to make life a little bit better” and had been waiting for a “sense of action” from Downing Street.

Asked if he was prepared to be disliked, the Prime Minister criticised some politicians who he said made a “fetish” out of being “tough” and “masochistic”.

“Isn’t the job to be popular by making people’s lives better?” he said.

“Isn’t that what you should be doing? I’m very pleased with the start that we’ve made. We just need this to be a better period than we’ve had for a while.”

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