Even insiders don’t know what Burnham has planned for Britain – POLITICO

LONDON — If everything goes right for Andy Burnham, the challenger to Prime Minister Keir Starmer will win a by-election, a Labour leadership contest and then the keys to 10 Downing Street before winter comes.

Yet this would only be the start of the battle for the politician nicknamed “King of the North.” Becoming the U.K. prime minister weeks or months after returning to parliament after almost a decade away would be a transition at a speed unprecedented in postwar Britain — and it leaves a heap of unanswered questions about what a Burnham government would look like.

The Greater Manchester mayor’s pitch is to turn his philosophy of “Manchesterism” — devolving power and money to regional leaders, gaining public control of transport infrastructure and partnering with private industry — into a national program. He has evangelized state involvement in housing and an emphasis on non-university education.