Burnham on Channel 4: “Completely Different Path”, Mass Nationalisation
Andy Burnham used a Saturday interview with Channel 4 News to call for the UK to go down a “completely” different path to the past 40 years, putting “more things back under stronger public control”. He said in an interview he favours nationalisation of energy, housing, water and transport; the Sunday Mirror exclusive details council-house building, electoral reform via proportional representation, and a programme of mass nationalisation. “Margaret Thatcher deregulated the whole country,” he said. “The country gave away its control of the basic things that people depend upon every day. And that was a big mistake.”
The programme as articulated maps closely onto the Guardian’s framing of “Manchesterism” — the bus-franchising, devolved-mayoral, public-investment model Burnham has implemented in Greater Manchester since 2017, scaled to national policy. It is the most explicit Left turn from a likely Labour PM since the Corbyn era. The Sunday Mirror quote: “Britain needs to build new politics. We want to listen to what people are saying.” The structural question for the bond market is how this programme interacts with the 30-year gilt at 5.85% — Burnham’s previous remarks that the government should not be “in hock” to financial markets are why Friday’s gilt sell-off was sharper than Streeting’s resignation alone would have triggered.