His broader governing philosophy, which he calls “Manchesterism”, extends that logic. As he told the Cambridge Bennett School in March 2026, the approach proposes “a fundamental shift away from Westminster’s centralised, top-down mandates toward a streamlined, place-based delivery model” – one in which “public control is a prerequisite for growth, rather than a reward for it.” He points to Greater Manchester’s Bee Network, which brought bus services back under public authority control at a third cheaper per kilometre than its privatised predecessor, as the template. Healthcare, in Burnham’s framing, sits in the same category as transport and housing: a public good that market logic has distorted.
