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Angela Rayner has defended Andy Burnham’s plan to boost local mayors’ spending power, saying they will not be forced to compete for it like the dystopian Hunger Games film.
Housing minister Ms Rayner said the prime minister’s aim of giving regions greater authority did not mean they would have to fight each other and get out the “begging bowl” to ask for government cash.
Ms Rayner compared how the devolution plans would work to a theoretical scenario whereby her friend, the ex-Labour MP and current West Yorkshire Mayor Tracey Brabin, sought government support for a new tram scheme.
Ms Rayner said: ‘She’ll [Ms Brabin] be saying ‘this is our collective endeavour within my region, I am going to invest money we have got devolved’.
“It’s not the begging bowl of going ‘I think I need a tram, can you please give it to me?’ - some sort of Hunger Games as we pitch one part of the country against another.”
The Hunger Games series set multiple box office records (Lionsgate)In the 2012 movie The Hunger Games, child contestants representing impoverished districts are compelled to fight to the death for support from the evil wealthy central authority, the ‘Capitol.’
Ms Rayner said the government instead had a duty to support regional leaders when they sought financial backing for transport and other major projects.
Her comments came shortly before she attended today’s first meeting of Mr Burnham’s ‘No 10 North’ in Manchester, designed to show his commitment to devolving more power to the regions from Whitehall.
The outpost is one of Mr Burnham’s flagship proposals is the creation, and is to serve as the “nerve centre” through which to deliver priorities including reindustrialisation and regeneration.
Housing Secretary Angela Rayner leaves 10 Downing Street following Prime Minister Andy Burnham's first cabinet meeting (Getty)Mr Burnham described his first day of work at the new No 10 North as the “best day of my life”.
“I cannot tell you what a proud moment this is. I think this might be the best day of my life. I’m not joking either. I know you think I am, but I’m not,” he said.
“Things are just completely coming full circle here for me, and to be here with you all in the heart of Manchester this Friday morning, at the end of a fairly big week, is just everything to me because it’s almost exactly 35 years since I left this city as a recently graduated young man who couldn’t find a job in the city.
Britain's Prime Minister Andy Burnham speaks to staff members during a visit to officially open No10 North in Manchester (AFP/Getty)“It was in a pretty bad place at that time, it’s fair to say, this is the because the 80s had turned into the 90s, there wasn’t much.
Mr Burnham has long been a champion of devolution, having called for it to go further repeatedly during his time as mayor of Greater Manchester.
Speaking outside of Number 10 as he became prime minister, he criticised political power in Britain becoming “centralised”, and added that he plans to “take power out of here, and carry it into every postcode in the land”.
This will entail putting essentials “under stronger public control”, he said, which he has suggested in the past includes sectors like water, transport and housing.