Why Andy Burnham's desire to be more than 'first among equals' could be his biggest blunder – Martin Roche
Plans for prime ministerial power grab could cause friction with his Cabinet and the Scottish government
Andy Burnham has all the reforming zeal of the new broom at No 10, though he may be heading bull-like into blunder territory. There has been little parliamentary scrutiny and no public consultation on the creation of “The No 10 of the North”, the expansion of the powers of English mayors or the plan to give the UK’s most senior civil servant – the Cabinet Secretary – the power to direct other government departments what to do.
The latter proposal offers the biggest potential for disaster. It has significant implications for the governance of the UK and for the relationship between the devolved administrations and London.
The Scottish government has expressed its concerns about the prosect of the Cabinet Secretary – presumably on the instructions of the Prime Minister – telling Edinburgh’s mandarins what to do. Scotland says Whitehall has no authority over Edinburgh on devolved matters. It asserts it has the legal power and the democratic mandate to have sole charge of its own civil servants.
Capo di capi?
The convention at UK Cabinet level is that the Prime Minister is primus inter pares, or first among equals. If Burnham succeeds in having the new policy applied, Secretaries of State will no longer have full command of their own departments. Under the proposals, via the Cabinet Secretary, the Prime Minister would stop being first among equals. He would become the capo di capi, the boss of all bosses. It would see an enormous increase in prime ministerial powers.
The idea may be sensible and deliver benefits to the country. It also has the potential to undermine the power, status and authority of Cabinet ministers and create fractures with the governments in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast.
In attempting to create greater stability, Burnham may in fact engender more instability by promoting public concerns about frequent battles between No 10 and other arms of government.
Brexit the biggest blunder so far
In a paper in 2019, the Political Studies Association asked “why is Britain so badly governed?” It concluded that government “did not engage in serious deliberation and didn’t deliberate with the people most directly affected, especially those whose job it is to apply a policy, or with independent experts, and with those who were opposed, before arriving at a decision”.
Recent botched policies include the cancellation of the high-speed rail link to Manchester, Liz Truss’s mini-budget, Keir Starmer’s cut to pensioners’ winter fuel allowances, and Scotland’s ferries procurement debacle.
The champion blunder of all has been Brexit. No other British public policy in the post-Second World War era has been so profoundly damaging to our economy, security, democracy and global influence. The warnings were frequent, informed, loud and accurate, but ignored or dismissed.
Burnham can break the cycle of frequent policy failure. Doing so means he must “deliberate with the people most directly affected”. It also means ministers at all levels of government must demand rigorous risk analysis of all new policy ideas.
Martin Roche sits on the committee of the European Movement in Scotland. Retired from a career in international public relations, he is a writer.
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