Head North – and why Westminster still needs to let go

27 August 2026 | Rob Fellows

I picked up Head North: A Rallying Cry for a More Equal Britain thinking I knew roughly what I was going to get.

I’ve known Andy Burnham for a long time. I supported both his Labour leadership campaigns in 2010 and 2015 and spent a fair amount of time driving around the country with Andy and his ever-loyal sidekick Kevin Lee. I’ve seen at close quarters what makes Andy such an effective politician.

Whatever you think of him politically, he has that increasingly rare ability to connect with people. Not audiences. Not focus groups. People.

I’ve also been frustrated with him at times. I haven’t always agreed with some of his interventions from Manchester, particularly when they’ve felt more like commentary on the Labour leadership than getting on with the job. Loyalty matters in politics, particularly when governing is difficult.

So I started Head North knowing quite a lot about one of its authors.

I’ve also met Steve Rotheram quite a few times over the years. I knew of his political journey, knew something of the man and had always liked him. But reading Head North gave me a much fuller appreciation of both him and what he has achieved in Liverpool.

And, perhaps unexpectedly, Steve was one of my biggest takeaways from the book.

His journey from apprentice bricklayer to Parliament and then Mayor of the Liverpool City Region is impressive. But what comes through even more strongly is his instinctive understanding of the communities he represents.

There’s very little pretence about him. He knows where he comes from and, more importantly, understands why that matters.

And that really gets to the heart of Head North.

Britain remains far too centralised.

For generations, we have operated on the assumption that the clever people sit in Westminster and Whitehall and occasionally dispense money and wisdom to everywhere else.

It hasn’t worked.

Burnham and Rotheram make a compelling case that places do better when the people making decisions actually understand them. Greater Manchester and the Liverpool City Region demonstrate what can happen when political leaders are given genuine power over things like transport, skills, housing and economic development.

But reading the book as a Welshman, I kept coming back to one question.

What about everywhere that isn’t Manchester or Liverpool?

Devolution cannot simply mean transferring power from Westminster to another large city.

If the argument is that decisions should be made closer to the people affected by them, that principle has to apply everywhere.

It has to apply to the South Wales Valleys, rural Wales, coastal communities, former industrial towns, the Scottish islands and communities hundreds of miles from the nearest metropolitan centre.

Because there is a danger that we simply replace one form of centralisation with another.

A decision made in Cardiff can feel every bit as remote to somebody in a small Welsh community as one made in Westminster.

That is why the next stage of devolution needs to be much more ambitious.

Not simply Westminster to Manchester.

Not simply Westminster to Cardiff.

But Westminster to nations, regions, towns and communities — with the money and genuine decision-making power following it.

That, for me, is where Head North becomes much more interesting than simply a book about two northern mayors.

It asks a much bigger question about how Britain should be governed.

We have spent decades talking about regional inequality while maintaining one of the most centralised systems of government in the developed world. Perhaps it shouldn’t surprise us that the same places repeatedly feel ignored.

The answer isn’t another ministerial visit, another funding pot or another strategy produced in Whitehall.

It is trust.

Trusting places to make more of their own decisions. Trusting local leaders to understand their communities. And accepting that sometimes they’ll get things wrong — because local politicians are no more infallible than national ones.

But at least when decisions are made locally, the people making them have to live with the consequences.

I thought I knew what Head North would say before I opened it.

I finished it thinking rather more deeply about devolution than I expected, with renewed respect for Andy Burnham and a considerably fuller appreciation of Steve Rotheram and what he has achieved.

Perhaps the strongest compliment I can give the book is that it made this proud Welshman realise that the argument in Head North needs to travel west, south and considerably further north too.

Because ultimately, this isn’t really about the North.

It’s about who we trust to make decisions about the places we call home.

And increasingly, the answer shouldn’t always be Westminster.