On Thursday October 9, Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, spoke at the Theos Annual Lecture in Manchester Methodist Central Hall. The event featured a 30 minute lecture from the mayor that focused on the lack of trust in politics and the importance of policies being led from ‘bottom up’, instead of Westminster’s ‘top down’ approach. The lecture was followed by a speaker and audience Q&A session where he continued his plea for more devolution and outlined how creating ‘local agency’ is the path towards more cohesion and less division.
Theos is a UK based non-profit Christian think tank, conducting research and holding events that aim to enrich the conversation about the relationship between politics, society and religion. The lecture was the first to be held outside of London, which somewhat set the scene for the topic of conversation.
After a few weeks in the spotlight following the recent Labour Party Conference , Burnham joked about keeping a low profile, before joyfully announcing the end of the Manchester bus strikes.
He began by leading a moment of silence in memory of Adrian Daulby and Melvin Cravitz, who died after the terrorist attack at Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue, as well as all those affected.
From a crisis of trust to a culture of encounter: How devolution is key
Burnham claimed that we are living in a time of ‘crisis of trust’ and a crisis of who to believe, renaming the lecture ‘from a crisis of trust to a culture of encounter’, a phrase attributed to the late Pope Francis. He added that he was worried by the change in political conversation over the past year, noting the increasing influence of social media on the political climate. Andy stated that even though the world is more complex than it was 25 years ago, it is still run in the same manner. The heart of distrust, he said, is caused by a ‘demise of local agency and action’ adding that there is a disconnect between people and politics, with Westminster ‘thinking’ they know what local communities want but treating people as ‘numbers and not names’. He says the lack of agency causes a feeling of alienation within local communities, which, alongside social media, is leading people to political extremes. He gave examples such as the benefits system ‘hammering the hope out of people’, the ‘appalling’ social care system as well as substandard ‘profit making’ hotels housing refugees, with which local communities have no communication.
Burnham says the solution is to make people feel like the government is functioning “for the people”, replacing soulless policies with trust, communication, faith and belief. He called on his Westminster colleagues saying, “business as usual is finished” and that we can’t carry on down this “dark and dangerous path” with so much at stake. He called for them to ‘give devolution a chance’ rebuilding from the bottom, repairing damage and creating an environment of trust within communities.
From altar boy to mayor
Andy was raised as Catholic and has previously said that Catholic social teachings underpin his politics. He spoke about the many influences on him, recalling his meeting with Pope Francis in 2023, which he later called ‘the greatest privilege of his life’. Burnham also mentioned his friend Paul Goggins, a respected Catholic Labour politician who mentored Andy, who told him the point of politics is to ‘give your power to people with none’.
Andy said that national governments do not consider the importance of faith, saying that having ‘no sight of the spiritual’ leads to a lack of connection to people’s real lives, something he called ‘a danger’.
He recalled the time when he, as health minister, rejected a bill to cut chaplaincy service, telling the story of when his Grandma was in hospital and how important that was to her. ‘‘Has he been yet?’’, she had asked. “She wasn’t talking about the doctor.” “She was talking about the priest.” “That mattered a million times more to Kitty Murray….that was everything to her”. “The state had no sight of the spiritual and in many ways it pushed it to the margins”.
During covid-19, Burnham worked with religious centres to support turning them into vaccination hubs, which in turn led to a greater uptake in vaccinations. “Delivering through places and people who are trusted makes a difference” he said. Burnham has played a crucial role in proposing community and faith based services, such as Greater Manchester’s Live Well service, a local, person-centered service which he says will reroute money from the bottom up, making possible a ‘culture of encounter’.
Devolution and the far right
Regarding what role devolution can play to counter the rise of the far right, Burnham said power must be closer to the people, putting values at the heart of things in an effort to counter alienation. He called on Westminster to offer a more collaborative approach based on points of agreement rather than differences. He warned that we must get ready for the next election now, predicting that it will be unlike any that most of us have seen in our lifetime.
When asked about what strategy could be used to reach the likes of Reform voters, Andy said there must be a ‘place first over party first’ approach, adding that he doesn’t blame people looking to other parties when they feel like ‘politics can’t fix the simple things’.
Back to Westminster?
Burnham said he was ‘so glad’ to leave Westminster and that he feels energised here in Manchester, but said again that he hasn’t ruled out going back, although he wonders whether ‘it wants the level of change’ he’s suggesting. He called party first politics a problem and criticised the whip system, saying it ‘makes a fraud of people’, causing them to lose a sense of who they are. If back in Westminster, he said he would like to remove the whip system as well as bring in Proportional Representation voting.
Lastly he referenced the influence of the SV voting system used in previous Greater Manchester elections, which he said opened up conversations at doorsteps, providing an incentive to find agreement over division. Burnham called Greater Manchester’s way of doing things ‘a big part of the solution’ saying that said other parts of the country can learn from it. Whether they will is another question.
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