Andy Burnham destroys 40 years of neoliberal failure in his first speech in the Commons as PM

Prime Minister Andy Burnham took apart 40 years of neoliberal failure in his first speech in the Commons as PM after Parliament returned from the summer recess.

Burnham condemned the manner in which political power had been centralised and economic power privatised, as he pledged once more to set out plans for stronger ‘public control’ of essential services.

He told Parliament that “Britain is not where we would wish it to be”, but promised to “build a new sense of optimism around the country”.

Following his 10 years away from Parliament, Burnham said he was returning with a “clear diagnosis” of what had gone wrong in the country.

He said: “From the 1980s, this country took a series of wrong turns.

“Political power was centralised, economic power privatised, the country deindustrialised, austerity followed, hollowing out councils and depriving them of the agency to act to reverse any of this.

“And then Brexit compounded the damage, ushering in a decade of low growth and stalled regeneration.”

He went on to add: “For 40 years too many places have been drifting, too many British high streets tell the story of this decline, people yearn to see them restored to what they once were as the communities secretary and I heard on our visit to Ilkeston in the summer.”

“They see no hope if we continue on the same path. With a failed economic model which does not trickle down much to places like theirs and instead allows wealth to be extracted and siphoned out. Britain’s water industry stands as a leaking monument to that approach, a country run in the private rather than the public interest.”