Burnham to spend first day working from No 10 North

Burnham’s first day as prime minister in No 10 North will include talks with business leaders, including representatives of the Federation of Small Business, the Confederation of British Industry and the British Chambers of Commerce, about how to generate growth and investment.

Labour wants to create a plan that would pull from existing devolution strategy and local growth policy, to allow civil servants, mayors, councils and businesses to work together more closely.

Burnham’s first week in power has seen him make a series of interventions aimed at easing the cost of living, including announcing a 20% cut in business rates for pubs, social clubs and live music venues from April next year.

However, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has criticised his ambitions for being “too small”.

Speaking on Thursday, she urged him to tackle high energy costs for businesses as well as a gap in defence funding.

“When you are mayor of Manchester, you are handed a big pot of someone else’s money, and you decide where to spend it,” she said.

“I’m sure this is great fun. It can make you very popular. But it is not the same as being prime minister.

“Andy Burnham needs to do better. He is behaving like he’s still the mayor of Manchester. He is now the prime minister of the United Kingdom, he needs to start acting like it.”

Liberal Democrat MP Calum Miller said Burnham needs to show that No 10 North is “more than just a convenient Friday working from home base for him and other Manchester MPs”.

“I know he’s been out of the House of Commons for a long time, but he’ll probably be reminded that many of us go back to our constituencies on a Friday,” he told broadcasters.

“So he needs to demonstrate it’s more than just that and that this represents something for the whole country – that rural and coastal communities that have been really left behind are actually part of his plan for decentralisation.”

Miller said this includes the ability for local areas to “raise their own funding and spend it in ways that will benefit them”.

Miller earlier said the Lib Dems have “always believed strongly that power should be held close to people”, adding: “We will welcome anything that moves in that direction.”