Dealing with Boris Johnson's Government over the last three years has been "like shouting into the abyss", Andy Burnham told the M.E.N. as he called on the next Tory Prime Minister to "empower the North".
Reflecting on Johnson's time in office, the Greater Manchester Mayor said that all too often there had been a gap between rhetoric and delivery.
"It's the Johnson gap", he said.
"All of his political career it's been there and it's played out in a colossal way in the North of England, where the promises were biggest to us and the lack of delivery or the gap between those promises and what we got was greater than anywhere else."
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The comments come a day after the House of Commons levelling up committee concluded that the flagship Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill "lacked the clarity and funding commitments needed to transform local communities."
Asked to characterise his dealings with Number 10 and the wider Government machine since 2019, Mr Burnham said: "It's felt like you're just shouting into the abyss really, not being heard at all."
He added: "I'm not going to put it all at the door of the outgoing Prime Minister or his his outgoing Cabinet, I think it's still a sort of a wider Whitehall thing. They don't like other parts of the country answering back.
"And what they've experienced for the first time, over the last few years, is parts of the country answering back. I think it's been a shock to the Westminster system but I'm afraid it's here to stay, there's just no way we're going back to life before."
The former Labour MP, speaking to the Northern Agenda podcast this week, said he would like to see Johnson's successor hand more power to the region's mayors.
He said: "If I was the new incoming Prime Minister, I would look at the combined authorities across the North and say, 'you know what, I'm immediately going to empower them because they could deliver growth and change much more quickly than us trying to do it from Whitehall'.
"So if the incoming Prime Minister wants to show there's been some change between now and the general election on levelling up, the best thing they could do would be to equip us quickly to get on and implement some of the plans that we've already worked up."
A Number 10 spokesperson responded: “Since the Prime Minister first came into office in 2019, this government has been delivering for the people of Greater Manchester. There are now 662 additional police officers keeping our streets safer and a new super courtroom to deliver swift justice in Greater Manchester.
“25,891 new homes have been delivered, with 9,100 new build completions in the last year, ensuring the region has the housing it needs. There are now 1,564 more doctors and 4,729 more nurses working to bust the Covid backlog in the North West than in 2019, as well as four new Community Diagnostic Centres in Manchester alone and a new major trauma hospital, which is currently in construction.
“The Integrated Rail Plan will help more people to get to work across the North West, with 250% increased capacity between Manchester and Leeds and over £660 million of local growth funding will provide new trams for the Metrolink, investment in key highway links in Rochdale and Wigan and major enhancements to the Manchester-Salford Inner Relief Road.
“This is all part of the government’s Levelling Up mission to unlock growth in the region – which will also boost the local economy of many towns directly through £1.02 billion worth of Towns Deals and funding injected to transform high streets from Farnworth to Stockport.”
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