Labour MPs: Burnham Must Run Reindustrialisation From Manchester No 10

More than 90 Labour MPs say Andy Burnham's plan to rebuild British industry cannot succeed unless it is run from No 10 North, the prime minister's office in Manchester, rather than from Whitehall. Their briefing paper argues that decades of deindustrialisation and deregulation have stripped the state of the knowledge needed to direct such an effort. "The state has lost capacity and has acquired a worrying set of behaviours which will inhibit reindustrialisation," the paper says. It adds that government has become less knowledgeable about the economy and businesses, unable to plan comprehensively, and slow to make decisions.

Burnham has said rebuilding industrial capacity is central to his promise of "good growth in every postcode." John Healey, who delivers the first budget on Wednesday, told Labour's conference last month that he would bring a "new age of industrialisation." The MPs want a Reindustrialisation Act that sets job creation targets tied to manufacturing capacity and holds ministers to them. "If we do not plan for reindustrialisation, we cannot achieve it," the paper says.

The group also asks that first secretary Louise Haigh oversee the work from No 10 North, which Burnham opened in July and which has already taken on some growth policy. It proposes turning the National Wealth Fund, which invests in promising businesses, into a Reindustrialisation Development Corporation charged with supplying capital to rebuild UK industry.

Andy MacNae, MP for Rossendale and Darwen and chair of the group, said he does not doubt the commitment of Burnham or Healey. He described "a kind of inertia in government, within the civil service, within economic orthodoxy, that still says that growth policy is about cities." MacNae said reindustrialisation must deliver jobs to "the places that need them most" and make goods that give the country national resilience. He pointed to the recent decision to nationalise British Steel, and said the work spans procurement to education.

Steve Yemm, MP for Mansfield, a former mining constituency, said other countries are reindustrialising while too many in Whitehall treat industrial policy as "dangerous nostalgia." Lorraine Beavers, MP for Blackpool North and Fleetwood, said Whitehall will not act unless instructed. "If I have learned anything since becoming an MP two years ago, it's that Whitehall doesn't fix a problem unless it is told to," she said.

The industrial strategy published under Keir Starmer identified eight sectors for growth, including advanced manufacturing, clean energy and defence. At conference, Healey said Labour would get Britain growing "with good work, good jobs and a new age of industrialisation."