Why Andy Burnham’s devolution agenda sounds a lot like Mike Bloomberg’s

His eponymous Bloomberg Philanthropies is training mayors around the globe

Burnham attending the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative in 2017

In his speech today, Andy Burnham outlined plans to go even further with devolution.

The news was welcomed by Tracy Brabin, the Mayor of West Yorkshire, who posted on X that Andy had “led the way in the devolution revolution” and that “devolution is already delivering for people in West Yorkshire”.

Next to the post, Brabin shared a photograph of herself with fellow regional mayors, including Steve Rotheram, the Mayor of Liverpool City Region, and Kim McGuinness, the Mayor of the North East England:

Image

Funnily enough, Brabin, McGuinness, Rotheram and Burnham have all attended the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative run by US billionaire Mike Bloomberg (via his eponymous Bloomberg Philanthropies).

Rotheram (right) was part of Burnham’s intake in 2017, along with Ben Houchen, the Conservative Mayor of Tees Valley (left):

McGuinness attended last year

… thanking Mike Bloomberg on LinkedIn:

Brabin attended the Harvard course in 2022 and has also gone on Bloomberg’s LSE course:

This is just the beginning of their links to Mike Bloomberg/ Bloomberg Philanthropies.


Read more

More Articles

Charlotte Gill
16 June 2025

Everything we know about the Assisted Dying Bill

(from a links/ funding perspective)
Charlotte Gill
13 June 2025

Local Council Efficiency: Kent

Where should DOGE start looking?
Charlotte Gill
13 June 2025

The first official DOGE report – into Kent County Council

Watch now (1 min) | A collaboration with Trafalgar Analytics
Charlotte Gill
11 June 2025

Why are we decarbonising the Military?

The MoD has been busy working on its Net Zero efforts