Public Interest: ‘Manchesterism’ - The end for Thatcherism?

Mylo Kaye

In 2002, twelve years after she left office, Margaret Thatcher, the former Conservative Prime Minister, who had governed from 1979 to 1990, was asked what she thought her greatest achievement had been. Her reply: “Tony Blair and New Labour. We forced our opponents to change their minds.” This sentiment was largely echoed by Blair himself, who stated that “in a way I always thought my job was to build on some of the things she had done rather than reverse them… Many of the things she said have had a certain credibility, and lasting impact.”

British political history since WW2 has generally been divided by historians and political scientists into two halves - the post-war consensus, when even Conservative governments stuck to the model of Keynesian economics established by Clement Attlee's 1945 Labour government, and then the Thatcher revolution, where, as under Reagan in America, Thatcher oversaw the rolling back of the state, mass privatization, the defanging of the trade union movement, and a switch from an industrial to a service economy. The results made her a hero for some, with a turnaround in Britain's economic slump, and the ultimate villain for many others, as she also presided over a period of mass unemployment, deindustrialization, and a widening of the gap between rich and poor.

Whilst some academics have questioned just how far this theory holds, it's generally been the case that most still hold to the idea that Thatcher helped establish a new consensus that subsequent governments have never moved too far away from - regardless of whether this was New Labour, the Conservative governments that followed, or the current Labour government under Keir Starmer. There have till now been no great moves towards renationalization, nor any real undoing of the other key policies for which Thatcher was most known, such as the Right to Buy scheme, whereby individuals were allowed to buy the houses that had previously been council homes - empowering some, but, it's argued, contributing to the current crisis in affordable housing four decades on.

Where politicians have proposed any kind of real change from this model, they have largely met with failure - as was the case with Jeremy Corbyn, when he, as Labour leader, pledged large-scale nationalization of key public services and taxes for corporations and the wealthy, but was defeated twice in general elections, in 2017, and then even more resoundingly in 2019. When Starmer, his successor as Labour leader, was elected as Prime Minister in 2024, it was on the pledge that there would be no significant tax rises for working people, nor any large-scale nationalization, focusing instead on setting up new publicly owned companies such as GB Energy, and on driving growth. Ahead of the 2024 election, Starmer described Thatcher as bringing about “meaningful change” and as seeking to “drag Britain out of its stupor by setting loose our natural entrepreneurialism.” 

This line may have helped Labour win over former Conservative voters, just as it did in 1997 under Blair, but for those on the left who agree with the view that Thatcherism was indeed revolutionary - but only in so far as it significantly widened class inequality, devastated whole communities, and reversed many of the achievements made since 1945 - it fell short of what was needed to address Britain's biggest problems. 

However, with Andy Burnham now officially the new Prime Minister, after having received the backing of 349 Labour MP's, there appears the real possibility of a genuine break from this consensus that has dominated British politics for the last forty years. 

Burnham, the former Mayor of Greater Manchester - nicknamed ‘the King in the North’ - has previously been vocal in his beliefs that Thatcherism and its legacy have been disastrous for the North of the UK, attacking the deindustrialization that occurred under her premiership, as well as the austerity imposed by subsequent Conservative governments. 

When initially making his bid for the Labour leadership back in May, at an investment summit in Leeds, Burnham stated that “Britain has been on the wrong path for 40 years,” adding that four decades “of trickle-down economics that did not, in the end, trickle down very much at all,” had created an economy “that didn’t work for most working people.”

In his first campaign video, when running as MP for the Greater Manchester constituency of Makerfield, Burnham further stated that “I saw what Margaret Thatcher’s government did to places like this… it left places like Makerfield behind. Britain has been on that path for the past 40 years.” As an alternative, Burnham has put forward his own distinct brand, “Manchesterism,” in which he seeks to take the lessons learnt whilst Mayor of Manchester to the national level, and which he stated will be “the end of neoliberalism.”

“It was the sense of injustice I got about the way this country is run that took me towards politics,” he went on to add. He has stated that there needs to be a “serious rewiring of this country to transfer power and resources back to local areas. It depends upon maximum devolution of power and resources from national government to local government.”

What this would actually look like in practice had been unclear, but further statements made following his win in Makerfield and Starmer's decision to step down are promising. In his keynote speech, made at the People's History Museum in Manchester at the end of June, Burnham declared his intention to take power away from Westminster, with devolution across the UK similar to that already seen in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, as well as a new "No 10 North” - indicating that a major part of the prime minister’s office will be moved from London to Manchester. 

"‘Manchesterism’ is a vision for good growth and a rejection of the old trickle-down model,” Burnham added, stating that he wants to see “good growth in every British postcode," with places outside of London “no longer forgotten or written off like they have in the past."

He went on to state that he wants to see local areas given the power to address problems specific to them, such as with transport, industrial transition, education, and housing. “Power is not in the hands of those places they represent, but held by an insufficiently accountable outsourced state. We are one of the most over centralized countries," Burnham noted, adding that he wants to bring about the "biggest rebalancing of power our country has seen." 

More than four decades on from Thatcher’s Right to Buy scheme, Burnham has also pledged to deliver "the biggest council house building programme since the post-war period,” building on an extra £39 billion towards social and affordable housing already pledged by Starmer. “Britain has lost almost 1.5 million council homes since the 1980s, and around the same number of people are now on housing waiting lists and have been there for a very long time. As the result, the country is in a housing trap,” Burnham stated. 

“A council home – a secure home – that was the foundation for everything. And then good technical education. And those things have been taken away in the decades since. So, no wonder so many young people struggle to make it work. We haven’t been giving people this stability – this ability to get on in life, and it’s time we did. And brought back working-class aspiration – the chance of somebody growing up here to be everything they can be. And that’s what we will do.”

He's also said that he wants to see "greater public control” over water and energy, both of which were privatized under Thatcher. Already, the government has nationalized British Steel, in one of Starmer's last acts as Prime Minister. 

Upon officially becoming Labour leader this Friday, Burnham again laid the blame for Britain's decline on “four decades of neoliberalism,” stating that his leadership would be "the most significant change moment in our politics for 40 years".

All these pledges are incredibly encouraging and carry the potential for real change - particularly for the North of England. 

Matt Downie, chief executive of Crisis, the UK's national charity for homelessness, stated that he'd “never seen anyone that is on the brink of being a prime minister even talk about homelessness, let alone have a deep knowledge about how it can and should be tackled. This is a unique once-in-a-generation opportunity for this country to follow a leader who’s got a real sense of purpose and an evidence-based ideology on how to tackle the problem.”

Whether they will go far enough, however, or signal a genuine break from the consensus existing since the eighties, remains uncertain. For all the bold rhetoric of Burnham's speech, he also made sure to avoid any panic from the markets, making clear that his policies would be guided by "sound public finances” and by the same fiscal rules under which Starmer's government had been operating. 

There remain real questions, therefore, about just how much change can truly be realised simply through the devolving of powers. Whilst this may give greater say to local authorities in the North and elsewhere, it seems to give little thought to tackling the fundamental problems of wealth inequality - what is ultimately the real legacy of Thatcherism.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has dismissed Burnham's pledges as “empty promises,” whilst Kristopher Leask, spokesperson for the Scottish Greens, stated that Burnham was “short on policy, leaving people with more questions than answers.” Green Party leader Zack Polanski agreed that “rebalancing power is vital - but what good are powers if you can't afford to use them?" He went on to ask if Burnham's goals will include ditching "the broken electoral system," protection for the poorest and most vulnerable with a "real wealth tax", and ending “the gutting of local authorities’ budgets."

Meanwhile, Burnham has also stuck to the government's tightening of the rules around asylum seekers, with the current Home Secretary, the socially conservative Shabana Mahmood, rumoured to be Burnham's choice for Chancellor, rather than soft-left candidate Ed Miliband - a reassuring choice for the markets if so, but less indicative perhaps of any drastic change. 

Whether “Manchesterism” truly spells the end of Thatcherism remains to be seen, therefore. Burnham has made bold promises - and may quickly find the tide of public opinion turning against him should he fail to deliver.