What is Manchesterism? #politicalphabet

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]M is for Manchesterism. Welcome back to the Political Alphabet. I'm Matthew, I'm a political scientist, and in these videos I provide straightforward explanations of an A-to-Z of key British politics terms. Manchesterism is essentially the name people have given to the political program of Andy Burnham. He's the mayor of Manchester and he's standing in a by-election soon to become an MP with a view to challenging Keir Starmer's leadership of the Labour Party and becoming Prime Minister. Manchesterism is based on what Burnham claims has worked so well in Manchester. The key components seem to be devolution and closer collaboration between public and private sectors, which can end up meaning more public control of key services. Those two things go together. With greater devolution of powers away from Westminster to local areas, local authorities can make decisions about that collaboration and control. He suggests that this is the way to get the country out of problems it's been stuck in with deindustrialization, privatization, and centralization of powers in Westminster since the 1980s.

[00:00:54]You'll hear him bring up the example of bus services in Greater Manchester, bringing them back into public control after they were apparently deregulated and neglected by Westminster for decades. But Manchesterism is quite an amorphous label and it's not clear exactly what Andy Burnham's pitch will look like concretely. There is some suggestion that he's already reining in some of the bolder claims he's made in recent years. And people disagree about the extent to which what has happened in Manchester has really been all that progressive, radical, or even all his doing. If you found this video helpful, please give it a like and follow me to stay up-to-date with the Political Alphabet.