The key flaw in Burnham’s ‘No 10 in the North’ plan | In The Room

Andy Burnham brings Downing Street to Manchester. Landmark plans for the northern government center were announced in Burnham’s speech on June 29, where he said: “No 10 North will be at the heart of a restructured Britain.”

In this clip from the last episode of In The RoomFormer deputy cabinet secretary Helen MacNamara explains why she’s a fan of the idea: “One of the problems with our administration is that London is a terrible place to make decisions that affect the whole country. London is unusual and abnormal.”

Former No 10 special adviser Cleo Watson is a little more skeptical about a divided administration: “You can have these Zoom calls and they can be very productive, but there’s so much going on face-to-face around the meetings, the little chats you have before or after as you get your coffee. You’re picking up all kinds of things on the sidelines. And when the Zoom call is over, you don’t know.”

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