Andy Burnham wins re-election as Greater Manchester mayor

let's speak to Andy Burnham in Greater Manchester the newly elected mayor congratulations uh what's your reaction to the result oh it's it's kind of overwhelming and quite humbling really when you see so many people who've gone out to to vote for you it's uh yeah it it means a great deal to me actually to lead this wonderful City region of ours for for a third time uh yeah I feel I feel a little overwhelmed and I'll uh I'll take a little while to get to get to come to terms with it Sophie but it's it is just a a great feeling and I just thank everybody who's voted for me and for those who haven't obviously I I'll work for everybody in the city region um you can't be been a surprise though you can't being that worried about it uh I'm not anyone will tell you I'm not the uh the best of candidates I uh I don't take anything for granted I never I never have so uh yeah I uh probably unnecessarily worrying at times but no I I don't ever take anything for granted and you know in many ways you know these are tough times aren't they really tough times I've just referenced that in my in my speech you know it's it's hard out there people are really struggling and you know politicians need to really kind of listen to what they've kind of heard I feel like on the doorstep you know the country needs pretty profound change as far as I'm concerned and you know we need now to to get on with uh with delivering it you say that you'll be a mayor for everybody no matter how they vote and I know that over the years you've always positioned yourself as a kind of independent voice particularly someone who wants to speak from a perspective outside of Westminster and outside of London so I just wonder how that might change if there's a la labor government in town which could happen you know by the end of the year will you be equally forthright with K dmer as you are with the current government I certainly would uh point out if things were wrong I I won't uh uh you know sort of hold back from doing that because the thing is uh Sophie you only do these jobs properly if you take a place first approach they are different roles to Westminster roles where it's party first under the whip system if you don't do these roles with a place first approach then I don't think you do these roles properly and sometimes uh that means you might have to say to the government of the day you've got this wrong or this isn't fair it isn't fair to us obviously you try and do it in a constructive way and I have actually tried to work with the current government but uh you know there have been times where they've really disrespected the people of Greater Manchester in the pandemic you might remember where you know they tried to to sort of railroad us into tier three without the support in this very building where I'm speaking to you now where they canceled hs2 without even speaking to us so sometimes you do need to use all of your political skills to call them out uh and I've I've done that but I'd rather work constructively with all uh with all governments to make Devolution work and I'm you know as I say I I think these election results show that the country is actually crying out for change now it's crying out for a fresh uh start uh and for us here in Greater Manchester to have a labor government at our back led by K sta you know that that could be such a game changer for us so we're getting excited about that Prospect now you've got a renewed mandate to speak for the people of Greater Manchester at a time when the parties are you know looking at their manifestos trying to working out what their priorities are ahead of the next general election what do you think K starma should be focusing on right now yeah well I'd say this to to all of the political parties I'll come back to your question in a second sopie but if I could make a broader Point first which is please for goodness sake can we sort of Leave Behind the minua of the culture wars and constantly looking for the new thing that's going to kind of cause a storm and divide everybody what about we focus on the bread and butter issues like the NHS and the waiting list and and get back to debating those and the solutions for those things I think we've kind of lost our way with the political discourse in the country at the moment you know we're kind of debating kind of Fairly Niche issues all of the time when massive things are are going wrong and I think all of the political parties need to uh remember that in terms of where what we would say uh to uh particularly to to to K is you know Evolution here is working but just let it go faster uh and let us do more greater mancher Eon greater Manchester's economy is growing faster than the UK economy that is proof that something really good and positive is happening here but give us more Powers over education over housing let us take more control of the benefits system to make it work better uh for people you know these are things that can be done without any extra spending because Devolution is showing that we can spend the money that's already there but we can spend it better and that's a big message I think that we're sending today uh to our own side but also to to all parties we've seen of course over the last few years Mayors like yourself um have this big presence like I guess that shows in a way that Devolution is working and you have these kind of political forces outside of London yourself Ben hin in teas Valley potentially Andre Street who of course has a very close fight ahead do you think that's a good thing or do you look at someone like Ben hch and you think oh goodness me he's he's not the right man for that job I think it's a good thing now that England kind of finally has a a sort of a less centralized political system we're one of the most centralized countries in the world and because we've had policy only made in whiteall I think it explains why it often doesn't work for people here in the north of England you know it explains why you know we are so unequal as a country we have such a large north south divide and finally we're breaking out of that and the thing about Devolution is it allows you to bring in kind of change that's right for people in the place where you are so for me you know putting buses back under public control here integrating buses with our trams in a London style system you know that will make a massive difference uh to people here you know Westminster had never delivered that it took us to to make that uh change but now we've made that change other places around the country are following suit and that's the way evolution is changing things Westminster isn't the only show in town anymore Westminster and whiteall don't control all the shots anymore you know we are bringing through change uh from the other way and I think it's often more positive change when it comes bottom up rather than impos top down so yeah I think this election the mays have really arrived actually Devolution is irreversible uh now and what I'm looking forward to as I say is is a government that kind of really goes for it now and and really allows us to do the leveling up that we were promised but we've not yet fully had okay and very quickly um cuz I know we have to let you go how are you going to be celebrating what are you going to be doing for the rest of the day oh the family are all here so how can you not celebrate when you're in uh when you're in Manchester City Center there's a there's a loads of good places to go so I'll be out out and about uh out and about tonight so uh yeah it's going to be going to be a good night and uh hopefully we'll be able to toast a Manchester City Victory later as well because uh they're they're playing later so we'll keeping a little eye on on that one but no it's it's going to be a positive night but there's loads of hard hard work to be done Sophie I'll be out on Tuesday Morning uh doing a homeless walk about in City Center Manchester getting off on the the right foot um and basically the the job from my point of view one night off but then we're straight back into it there's loads to do uh and actually the biggest moment of opportunity lies ahead of us now you know we've got more Powers here we hope we'll have a government at our back soon greater Manchester moment is now and I'm absolutely not going to waste it okay there you go if you're out about in Manchester tonight watch out for Andy Burnham uh thank you uh very much indeed and bu buy me a pint if you if you see me okay all right okay thanks so much

Channel: Sky News

Views: 19,594

Keywords: Sky, News, UK, Election, Manchester, Mayor, Andy Burnham, Vote, 2024, Labour, Post, Local

Id: omWmyFv_uj0

Length: 7min 44sec (464 seconds)

Published: Sat May 04 2024