Britain needs to be “blunt about what went wrong” over the last four decades, Andy Burnham has said as he addressed the House of Commons for the first time since becoming Prime Minister.
He hit out at the deindustrialisation and privatisation of the 1980s, and the impact of austerity and Brexit on areas of the UK outside of the South East and London.
“Unless we are blunt about what went wrong, we won’t turn things around. Far from taking back control, the combination of these policies took control out of the hands of communities up and down Britain,” the Prime Minister told the Commons.
Public control over services and utilities will be at the centre of the Government’s efforts to create economic growth, the Prime Minister said.
He told MPs: “The Government I lead will be relentless, relentless in giving people and places what they were promised 10 years ago: ownership and control.
“And from that control over their destiny comes change and growth.”
Leading Greater Manchester as its mayor has “given me a clear theory of growth”, Mr Burnham claimed, adding: “I will apply it to all parts of the UK learning from what has been achieved in Greater Manchester.”
The Prime Minister also said he will attend the Cop31 climate summit in Turkey in November, as he pledged to “meet the climate challenge”.
In his opening address, Mr Burnham also paid tribute to Sir Keir Starmer, who earlier on Tuesday announced that he is standing down as MP for Holborn and St Pancras.
The PM said that Sir Keir had "given this country a lifetime of public service", and that his predecessor’s stance on Ukraine is "one which I will not change, whatever the threats we face".
Mr Burnham said that prisons were among the first things he reviewed upon taking office.
He said that the government took the "early decision" to exclude rape, grooming and serious child sex offences from the early release scheme, after hearing the calls from the family of PC Andrew Harper and others.
Anyone convicted of manslaughter, death by dangerous driving or indecent assault will now not see any change to their prison term, he confirmed.
The government plans to find more prison places by deporting more foreign national offenders and through its policy on indefinite sentences.
The Prime Minister also touched upon devolution, saying he has spoken to all parts of England without devolved power and to the First Ministers of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
