Former councillor, Grays resident and occasional commentator on Thurrock Nub News, MARTIN KERIN offers an opinion on the current state of political affairs.

OUR country is in a flux, and has been for nearly 20 years. For the second time in our recent history, a government with a large majority is seemingly unable to provide both the stability which people crave and the long-term vision of change which is sorely needed.

With a state as centralised as the UK, this is a problem. Having faced the financial shock of the '08 Global Financial Crash, the utter misery of Austerity, the self-inflicted wounds of Brexit and the complete societal upheaval of Covid, it is surely time to question the whole basis of a modern British state operating out of a Georgian townhouse in Downing Street.

For a Labour Party which has always (rightly) prized redistributing wealth, a focus for the second half of this Government must be on re-distributing power.

It has become, regrettably, increasingly clear that Keir Starmer's time as Prime Minister is nearing the end.

However, any change must be more than just a change of name above the door of Number 10.

A change of philosophy is needed to make it worthwhile. Just churning through leaders like the Tories did (Cameron-May-Johnson-Truss-Sunak, anyone?) in hope that something might come up simply won't cut it.

To avoid just simply changing the name of the PM, we also need a change of ideas. Could this change be Andy Burnham and could the idea be 'Manchesterism'?

Although it doesn't seem like it now, Keir Starmer's long-term legacy is secure. The workers' rights package will rebalance power in the workplace; the Hillsborough Law will rebalance power between the citizen and the state; the public ownerships already announced and legislated for will rebalance power between the market and the public interest.

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The challenge now is to rebalance power away from the central state and out to the nations and regions. This is a process which was started by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown with Scottish and Welsh devolution in the 1990's and 2000's and was continued by David Cameron and George Osbourne in the 2010's with English Metro Mayors and Combined Authorities.

Dare I say it, but devolution of power has been the only cross-party political consensus of the last 20 years. If we are about to embark on another mid-term change of PM, it seems to me that this should be someone who personifies this consensus (the aforementioned Andy Burnham) and an idea rooted in the consensus of devolution (the aforementioned 'Manchesterism').

At its crux, 'Manchesterism' is based around the idea that empowered city-regions — coordinating transport, housing, healthcare, skills and investment — can produce both stronger growth and greater social cohesion.

The wider English devolution settlement is about regional confidence, integrated transport, devolved housing, civic identity, economic planning and visible democratic accountability. In terms of visibility, who can argue that the buck stops with Sadiq Khan in Greater London and with Richard Parker in the West Midlands?

Greater Manchester is the largest city-region economy outside London, generating roughly £100bn Gross Value Added annually. Recent productivity scorecards classify Greater Manchester as a 'catching up' region with the strongest productivity growth among mayoral combined authorities.

Greater Manchester is now broadly seen as one of the few large urban economies genuinely narrowing the productivity gap with the capital. It is one of the best-performing and fastest-improving regional economies. However, relative to European second cities, for example Lyon or Munich, it still underperforms on productivity and high-skill employment.

Martin Kerin

I feel it will always be this way until Whitehall gives way to the Town Hall. Governments of Left and Right have increasingly accepted the same underlying truth: Britain is too centralised to govern effectively from SW1 alone. This matters for us in Thurrock and Greater Essex.

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The Essex Mayoral Combined County Authority would have a population larger than the Liverpool City Region headed by Steve Rotherham and a stronger economy than the Tees Valley Combined Authority area headed by Ben Houchin.

With further devolved power, it could press home its advantages in terms of proximity to London, logistics and ports, advanced manufacturing and energy.

Thurrock could become the dynamo of this economic and political region. 'Manchesterism' offers the Government a governing philosophy rooted not in Westminster, but in the democratic confidence of place, community and region. And Thurrock could be at the heart of this in Greater Essex.

If the baton is passed from Keir Starmer to Andy Burnham, it will be passed to someone who wants more power to be taken from London and given to the rest of England.

If the baton is passed from Keir Starmer to Andy Burnham, it will be passed to someone who has actually used local power for the betterment of Greater Manchester.

If the baton is passed from Keir Starmer to Andy Burnham, Thurrock must be ready to grab it with both hands.