GB News host Stephen Dixon has grilled a Labour MP on Andy Burnham’s plan for No10 North, questioning “what benefit” the move will have on people “outside of Manchester”.
Speaking to GB News, the Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office assured that it is a “really exciting opportunity” to “get the message out there” to people across the country.
Enacting his plan today, the Prime Minister will host the first ever No10 North meeting in Manchester, declaring Whitehall’s resistance to devolution is “over for good”.
No10 North will be housed at Heron House, near Manchester’s Albert Square, a building which is also home to Government Communications Headquarters’ Manchester and North West hub.
Asked by host Ellie Costello what No10 North is “going to achieve”, Ms Jameson told GB News: “I think No10 North is a really exciting opportunity because what it is there to do is devolve power from Whitehall and from London and get it out there.
“Not just to the north, but to regions and nations across the country, and make sure that power and money is delivered to communities everywhere.
“It’s about making sure that individual postcodes, regional mayors and local authorities have the power to deliver the best services and get the best value for money for their people.”
Challenging Ms Jameson, host Stephen Dixon argued that the plans are simply “shifting the Westminster bubble up to Manchester”.
Labour MP Sally Jameson is grilled on ‘what benefit’ No10 North will have to people outside of Manchester
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GB NEWS
Disagreeing with Stephen, Ms Jameson responded: “It’s not about moving everything out of London, it’s about moving certain elements of governance outside of London, so it best serves people across the country.
“And it’s about sending that signal out there that actually, the civil servants’ jobs, ministers, everyone is accessible outside of London, and so I think it’s a really important milestone.”
She assured: “Andy Burnham himself has shown in Manchester that actually, when you give power and when you give the money and devolve it to local areas and to mayors and to local authorities, you can actually deliver something incredible, far more incredible, actually, than if all that power is centralised in London.”
Criticising the plans further, Stephen pressed Ms Jameson on “what benefit No10 North has to someone living in Scarborough?”
Andy Burnham will host the first ever No10 North meeting today in Manchester
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PA
The Labour MP told GB News: “I think it’s about sending that message out there actually, that not all the decisions are made in London and people who are in Manchester or working in Manchester or in the towns around it, have a very different life experience and understanding to those people that live in London.
“So it’s about making sure actually that people can see there’s areas outside of the capital where money and power is devolved to, and which they can benefit from.”
Having examined the current job vacancies for No10 North, Stephen told Ms Jameson that many of the available roles are for “social media producers”, with salaries adding up to “hundreds of thousands of pounds”.
Asked by the GB News host why Andy Burnham isn’t spending his money “more wisely”, the MP responded: “I think that there will be all kinds of jobs in No10 North and this is just basically day one.
Ms Jameson told GB News that there will be ‘all kinds of jobs’ available at No10 North
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GB NEWS
“And actually there’ll be recruitment of civil servants or relocation of civil servants to make sure that this works and to make sure that all different departments are represented in No10 North.”
Picking up on the point of relocation, Ellie quizzed Ms Jameson on the cost of those relocation packages for hundreds of civil servants.
She said: “We already have, I think around 80,000 civil servants at work across the country, and all the the set up costs for No10 North will come out of existing Cabinet Office budgets, so it won’t be an additional burden on the taxpayer.
“But it’s about reallocating those resources so that the power and the money is actually outside of London.”