Andy Burnham’s No10 North project has been branded a “stunt” and a “vanity project” by Jeff Banks in a furious tirade.
Speaking to GB News, the designer and businessman said the move by the new Prime Minister is a “joke”.
Opening the No10 North office in Manchester on Friday, the former Mayor of the city told staff it is “better that we have a North Pole that balances the South Pole of our country”.
He said: “This is the place where Whitehall meets the rest of the country. I’ve called it the nerve centre for a rewired Britain.
“We’re going to make things work, a different way of running Britain, that is what I’m committed to do as Prime Minister.”
Reacting to the move, Mr Banks told GB News: “I think it’s a joke. For me, Andy Burnham got parachuted in by the Labour Party because Keir Starmer was a complete robot.
“The Labour Party looked around to figure who we could actually get to replace him, so they said, well, let’s have a northern lad, it’ll like come across good.”
The businessman questioned what the Prime Minister “will achieve in No10 North”.
He argued: “They’ve shifted him in as if by magic, and then he’s got this idea of No10 North, which to me is a complete stunt, and everything he’s doing is like bringing down bus fares, knocking off a bit of VAT here and there – I don’t know what he’s going to achieve in No10 North.
“For me, 400 years of Parliament being administered from Downing Street and the City of Westminster, that’s where it should stay. It’s a stunt.”
Defending the move by Mr Burnham, ex-Labour MP Bill Rammell argued that broadly it is a “good idea” but it does need “explanation”.
He told GB News: “Is No10 North a good idea? Broadly, yes, but it needs clear explanation and communication. We have the most centralised state in the advanced world, and we do not get good outcomes for that.
“Decentralisation of power to Mayors, to regions is a good thing, and look at the evidence. Greater Manchester and productivity is a key determinant of economic future.
“Economic growth under Burnham in Greater Manchester is at 14 per cent over recent years compared to a national average of three per cent.”
Disagreeing with Mr Rammell, Mr Banks argued that there are already “functioning councils and regions” without the need for No10 North.
He said: “I actually think moving No10 to the north isn’t going to do anything. We already have very functioning councils around the country that actually do a great job regionally.
“Overall, the business needs to be managed centrally in London, that’s where everybody gathers. So to have this little almost kind of vanity project going in Manchester just to satisfy his own ego doesn’t wash with me at all.”
Interjecting Mr Banks, Mr Rammell hit back: “I genuinely think you’re not being fair to him, Jeff, because he genuinely believes in devolution of power.
“That’s what he’s demonstrated as the Mayor of Greater Manchester, and he thinks that’s a model that can actually bring benefits to whole swathes of the country.
“You said it was a vanity project and an ego trip, it’s not. He genuinely believes in the devolution of power out of Westminster to make decision making local, closer to where people live.”
