Andy Burnham has set out a prospective agenda for Britain’s next prime minister, ‘business-friendly socialism’, a plan to be implemented over a decade to reverse the decline in public trust in politics and to rebalance opportunity between regions. A key component of this agenda for change is a proposed restructuring of Britain’s political economy via devolved governance, the public stewardship of essential services, and disciplined diplomacy. The means by which Britain can be ‘renewed’ will involve great challenges, not least in its relations with a powerful and highly unpredictable foreign partner in Donald Trump, America’s 45th president.
Starting from constitutional change within Britain, Burnham aims to transform a country whose centralised structure of governance has alienated its citizens, leaving them feeling disenfranchised. He recognises that merely replacing the House of Lords with a Senate of the Nations and Regions will be insufficient to create devolved power structures. Therefore, he is planning to establish a ‘No 10 North’ office. This office will be a symbol to demonstrate that the centre of power is to shift north, as decisions taken in the south of England have left the nations and regions of Britain to fight over limited resources. Thus, Britain’s future will be structured and delivered from the north of the country. In reality, to bring about devolved power structures, sufficient legislation will be required to transfer fiscal responsibility to regional governments. Transparency will also be required in relation to how investment in housing, transport and employment is spent in each of the regional governments.
The economic aspect of Britain’s future under Andy Burnham is based on a “Manchesterism” model, which will see regions of the country invest in and be responsible for their own infrastructure to drive economic growth beyond the South East. The key measures announced include a rise in council tax on luxury homes; a £40 billion borrowing to invest in council housing; a return to the 50p income tax rate for the highest paid; and a cut in tax for low and middle income earners. The finance markets are always going to be nervous of a high-spending Prime Minister, but the key to the tax increase for the rich is going to be the revaluation of properties for tax purposes, which is likely to be both expensive and contentious. The key to balancing economic growth with social justice is to implement the key aspects of the prospective agenda on a phased basis, introducing the key aspects of the housing investment in the short term and monitoring the key tax measures with the help of an independent body. It is also important to ensure that any borrowing is used to invest in productive assets, which will continue to generate returns as opposed to recurrent expenditure, which will merely lead to a drain on resources. Burnham’s plans for public ownership of key services, including water, energy, housing and transport, are part of a long-term project to reverse the privatisations of the 1980s, but he needs to be aware of the potential legal disputes and the large amounts of compensation that would be due to existing investors. A more pragmatic approach would be for the government to take the key services back into public ownership, but to use a combination of public and private sector delivery, with the government retaining the key strategic functions and using private sector finance to deliver efficient and effective services.
Foreign policy under Burnham would be characterised by caution and pragmatism. In Europe, he rejects re-entry into the EU but advocates for closer cooperation on critical trade and security. This stance acknowledges Brexit’s permanence while seeking to mitigate its economic impact through targeted, sector-specific accords. Globally, Burnham emphasises Britain projecting stability through domestic renewal, alignment with NATO obligations, and focused climate diplomacy.
He will need to conduct relations with some of the world’s most powerful and unpredictable leaders, not least Donald Trump, of the USA. As protectionist tendencies are being displayed by this leader of the world’s largest economy, the British prime minister will need to be pragmatic, engaging in cooperative activity when it is in Britain’s interest to do so. But he will also need to be firm in relation to issues where he is unlikely to be successful in negotiation, and to establish clear red lines that he is not willing to cross, while also seeking to depersonalise as much as possible the very complex negotiations required with this unpredictable leader. Institutional, as well as other, channels will be key here.
In conclusion, Andy Burnham’s ‘business-friendly socialism’ will be a decade-long attempt to reconcile socialism with business-friendly policies. There will be several problems with making such successful changes to Britain’s political economy. However, the strategic way of dealing with these problems will be to try to implement them on a phased basis. Additionally, there will be a need for hybrid models of various types in several fields. As regards foreign policy, he will attempt to implement a program of stability, especially by attempting to implement, as much as possible, a Britain-based program of stability. He will, therefore, attempt to behave in a business-like manner, with due emphasis on democracy, and, where appropriate, counter-terrorism, especially in relation to countries such as Pakistan. Importantly, he will attempt to deal with particularly unpredictable partners, such as Donald Trump, on a pragmatic basis, in order to achieve his objectives as far as possible. This will require a very disciplined diplomatic approach, with clearly defined red lines, etc., which will be implemented in a variety of ways. He will attempt to depersonalise the bilateral relationship in order to negotiate in a wide variety of ways, in order to achieve Britain’s objectives. In this way, Britain will be returned to the status of a stable country, etc., with a variety of postcodes throughout the regions of Britain, being able to enjoy equitable amounts of growth.
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Simon Hutagalung
Simon Hutagalung is a retired Indonesian Foreign Ministry diplomat and received his Master’s degree in Political Science and Comparative Politics from the City University of New York. He writes opinion pieces for Europeantimes and all opinions expressed in his article are his own.
