Burnham enters race to become new mayor

HAT IN the ring... Shadow Home Secretary Andy Burnham wants to be Mayor of Greater Manchester

SHADOW Home Secretary Andy Burnham has thrown his hat into the ring for mayor of Greater Manchester and claims “Westminster has failed the North”.

The Labour MP, popular in Liverpool ­— in part due to his campaigning for the victims of the Hillsborough tragedy, will launch his bid to become his party’s candidate for Greater Manchester mayor with a speech in Salford today.

Mr Burnham, who stood against Jeremy Corbyn to be Labour Party leader, will invite Labour activists to support his vision of Greater Manchester as a “beacon of social justice” that leads the campaign for a more equal England.

The Shadow Home Secretary, who has served as the MP for Leigh in Greater Manchester for 15 years, will set out plans for a revolution in technical education, the country’s first fully-integrated National Health and Care Service and will call on government to prioritise investment in new high-speed rail across the North.

He said: “Centuries of our Westminster system have made England a very unequal country. Westminster has failed the North. It has left us with an uneven share of resources, power and life chances.”