Chris Mason: Burnham is starting to sketch out his vision as PM

Andy Burnham will give what his team has called “his first major leadership speech” on Monday morning and will promise to “lift Britain back up to where it should be”.

In an address at the People’s History Museum in Manchester, the new MP for nearby Makerfield will say as prime minister he would “give Britain the circuit breaker it needs”.

His inner circle describe it as “the foundational text” of his programme for government.

As such, it is expected to be broad based.

It is not thought he will take any questions from reporters afterwards, which will likely raise eyebrows from some given his lack of a mandate from the electorate.

His team insist this won’t be part of “a pattern” of avoiding scrutiny – but that will come later in the campaign.

Central to his plans is handing more power to politicians beyond Westminster, in what is claimed would be “the biggest transfer of power out of Whitehall in modern times”.

However, it isn’t thought his ideas would be as significant as the setting up of the Scottish and Welsh parliaments and the Northern Ireland Assembly, nor the introduction of regional mayors in England.

Instead, it is expected that he will argue that nowhere near enough has been done to empower politicians outside London to do as much as they could.

Allies of the former mayor of Greater Manchester say Burnham’s time in that job proved to him “how resistant Whitehall can be to devolution”, as one put it, and that he wanted that to change.

One idea, described as a “flagship proposal”, is the creation of what is being called a “No10 North” – with a part of the prime minister’s operation being based in Manchester.

The aim is that this unit would be “to drive devolution” and it would be responsible for “good growth in every postcode” of the UK.

One source emphasised this wouldn’t be about favouring the north of England – there would be attention paid to the other English regions and to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, they said.

Burnham will also talk of his desire for what he calls “public control” of energy, water and transport – but a central question will be how much detail he offers about what he would want to do and on what timescale.

How much state intervention would he seek and how close might it be to nationalisation?

The Chairman of the Conservative Party, Kevin Hollinrake, said: “Andy Burnham’s big idea is to shuffle power between politicians. Not fix the welfare system.

“Not cut the taxes strangling working families and British business. Not fund the defence our country desperately needs.

“Just more devolution, more committees, more process.

“It’s the politics of distraction from a Labour Party that is deliberately avoiding the questions that actually matter.”