If you want to rewire Britain, you have to rewire politics too

You can move power out of Westminster. You can't leave Westminster's problems attached to it.

There aren’t many politicians talking about rewiring Britain.

Most promise to spend more, regulate more, cut more or tax less. Andy Burnham is offering something much more fundamental. His argument is that Britain won’t become more prosperous by asking Whitehall to do more. Instead, power should move closer to the people and places that know their own communities best.

That promise immediately caught my attention because it chimes a lot with what our new Bigger Than Politics campaign is designed to achieve.

Bigger Than Politics is built around a simple idea: many of the biggest problems in our politics aren’t simply about the politicians we elect. They’re rooted in the rules and systems underneath them.

Burnham appears to be making a remarkably similar argument about government itself. His answer is “Manchesterism” - a model of place-based leadership, collaboration and devolution that has transformed Greater Manchester over the past decade. His ambition is to take that approach nationwide.

It’s a bold proposition.

No one has attempted anything quite like it at this scale. Few politicians have a stronger case for trying.

I’ve worked across several policy areas over the years, including healthcare and policing. One thing has consistently stood out. If you’re looking for examples of innovative public policy in Britain, Greater Manchester appears again and again.

The city’s transport transformation is the most obvious example. The Bee Network has become the first fully integrated public transport system outside London, bringing buses, trams, cycling and walking together under local control.

Healthcare tells a similar story. Greater Manchester’s Integrated Care Partnership brings together hospitals, GPs, councils and social care with a shared multi-billion-pound budget to coordinate services around neighbourhoods rather than institutions. The model has proved so successful that Greater Manchester was recently chosen as the NHS’s first national Prevention Demonstrator, helping shape how public services intervene earlier rather than waiting until problems reach crisis point.

The same collaborative approach runs through policing, economic development and civic life. Greater Manchester Police has pioneered initiatives later adopted elsewhere. Innovation Greater Manchester brings together universities, businesses and local government to drive research and investment. The groundbreaking Greater Manchester VCFSE Accord formally embeds charities and community organisations within local decision-making - recognising that lasting solutions rarely come from government acting alone.

None of this happened by accident.

It reflects a philosophy that trusts places to solve problems, encourages civil society and institutions to work together and gives communities a genuine stake in shaping their future.

The results are beginning to show. Centre for Cities recently found that Manchester has recorded the largest fall in inner-city deprivation anywhere in Britain since 2010. The proportion of neighbourhoods ranked among the most deprived fell from 75.7% to 58.4% over that period.

That isn’t to suggest Greater Manchester has solved deprivation. Far from it. Health inequalities remain. Many communities still face deep economic challenges after decades of underinvestment.

That’s precisely the point.

Burnham’s argument isn’t that devolution has finished the job. His argument is that it has demonstrated what’s possible, even within the constraints of Britain’s highly centralised political system. The logical next step is to devolve further and give more communities the tools to shape their own future.

That’s where the conversation becomes especially interesting.

Moving power closer to people feels instinctively democratic. Citizens gain more influence over decisions that affect their everyday lives. Public services become more responsive. Local innovation becomes easier. Successful ideas spread more quickly.

But none of that automatically produces healthier democracy.

Power can still be hijacked by disinformation when it’s exercised locally. Money doesn’t stop buying influence once decisions move out of Westminster. Public trust doesn’t magically recover when scandals involve town halls rather than Parliament.

Reallocating power is only worthwhile if we also strengthen the democratic foundations underneath it.

That’s exactly why the principles behind Bigger Than Politics matter.

First, communities need fair information.

Local democracy depends on people being able to make informed choices. Social media algorithms don’t distinguish between national politics and local politics. AI-generated misinformation can spread just as easily around a mayoral election, a planning decision or a local referendum. Recent riots and disorder demonstrated just how rapidly false information can inflame tensions within individual communities. Devolution without a healthy information environment leaves local decision-making just as vulnerable to manipulation.

Communities also need fair influence.

One argument sometimes made about devolving power is that it weakens the influence of vested interests. The reality is usually more complicated. Local planning decisions, procurement contracts and development proposals can all be heavily influenced by relatively modest amounts of money. In many cases, influencing local politics costs far less than influencing Westminster. Strong transparency rules, robust donation laws and effective enforcement become even more important as decision-making becomes more local.

Successful devolution also depends on fair votes.

Britain already struggles with low participation in many local elections. Low turnout isn't simply a local problem. Trust in politics is shaped by what people see at the national level, where millions feel their votes fail to translate fairly into political power. It's difficult to persuade people to engage more locally while that trust continues to decline. Creating new elected mayors or devolving additional powers won't change that on its own. If communities are genuinely expected to shape their own future, every voter should feel that participating is worthwhile, that their vote carries real weight and that the democratic system is genuinely worth investing in.

The goal shouldn’t simply be to create new centres of power. It should ensure that power remains accountable to the people it exists to serve. A healthy democracy should continually pull decision-makers back towards the needs and priorities of the communities they represent. The way we elect those decision-makers plays a vital role in whether that happens.

Burnham has already backed the idea of an independent National Commission on Electoral Reform. That’s encouraging. The question of how we elect representatives deserves exactly the same evidence-led, collaborative approach that has characterised so much of Greater Manchester’s success.

Finally, every level of government needs fair play.

Trust isn’t created by relocating power. Trust is earned through strong standards, clear rules and meaningful accountability. Public confidence grows when people know those exercising power face the same expectations regardless of whether they’re ministers, mayors or councillors. Strong institutions shouldn’t rely on good intentions. They should make integrity the default.

None of this diminishes Burnham’s vision.

Quite the opposite.

His ambition recognises something Westminster has often struggled to accept: Britain’s problems are increasingly structural rather than simply political. Shifting power closer to communities could become one of the most important constitutional reforms in decades.

That opportunity shouldn’t stop at devolution.

Rewiring where power sits should prompt us to rewire how power is won, exercised and held to account. The democratic rules that govern Britain deserve the same willingness to innovate that Burnham has shown in Greater Manchester.

My hope for his first hundred days would be simple.

Set the rewiring in motion. Start devolving power. Build on the lessons Manchester has already demonstrated.

Then go one step further.

Launch the National Commission on Electoral Reform that he has already backed.

Manchester has shown what’s possible when we rethink how government works. The next challenge is making sure our democracy is every bit as modern, resilient and collaborative as the places we’re asking to lead Britain’s future.

That really would be bigger than politics.

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