Burnham says UK not where it should be as he vows to set country on new course

Andy Burnham has promised to put the country on a new path as he delivered his first Labour conference speech as the party leader and Prime Minister .

Promising to give the country greater control over housing, energy and water and reforming the social care system, Mr Burnham said he was ready to “break the mould” to end the drift and division which has characterised British politics for a generation.

Addressing delegates in Liverpool, he said: “This country isn’t where any of us would want it to be.

“Politics-as-usual has taken Britain backwards.

“More of the same isn’t good enough.

“That’s why I feel I have to break the mould today.”

Mr Burnham, who replaced Sir Keir Starmer in No 10 in July, claimed there was a “sense of the powers-that-be pulling against the people, not with them”.

“If there’s one thing I want to put right, it’s that,” he said.

Taking aim at the changes introduced since Margaret Thatcher was in office in the 1980s, Mr Burnham said: “Britain has been on the wrong path for a long time.

“Deindustrialisation. Deregulation. Privatisation. Austerity. Brexit.

“And what has it given us? A country run for vested interests, not in the public interest.”

He compared his task in building a new form of politics to the 1945 Labour government’s efforts to reshape the country in the wake of the Second World War.

Mr Burnham said: “We built the common good. Or at least we did until the 1980s.

“Suddenly, the common wealth we had created for the many was seen as an opportunity for the few.

“Homes. Water. Energy. Transport. Care.

“The British right talk about ‘taking back control’.

“Never let them forget: they are the ones who gave it away in the first place.”