Once the King of the North, Prime Minister Andy Burnham is now King of Devolution. He quite literally wrote the book on it – Head North, co-written by fellow mayor Steve Rotheram – and has put his plans at the very centre of his premiership, creating No10 North as the engine room for devolution.
As his devolution vision is set to sweep across the country, he is clearly not going to deliver it alone. And while there are many policymakers lining up to take credit for devolution, there is a cadre of people now driving the policy on behalf of Burnham, preparing to deliver his vision and push power down to strategic authorities.
