Burnham Khan Mayoral Alliance Forms Britain’s Most Expensive Support Group

Burnham Khan Mayoral Alliance Forms

Britain’s Most Expensive Support Group

Prat.uk Political Desk

Two men who built entire careers demanding more power for mayors have now found themselves in a position to grant it to each other, and the resulting Burnham Khan mayoral alliance may go down as the most expensive support group in British political history — two members, unlimited budget, and a shared conviction that every problem is best solved by giving mayors slightly more of everything.

The Founding Principles of the Burnham Khan Mayoral Alliance

Sadiq Khan has spent years lobbying for greater fiscal and policing powers for London, a campaign well documented by outlets such as the Greater London Authority. Andy Burnham has run the equivalent campaign for Greater Manchester. Now that one of them sits in Downing Street, the Burnham Khan mayoral alliance has effectively become a closed conversation between the person who grants powers and the person who wants them, with the added twist that they used to be on the same side of the table.

Observers note this creates an unusual accountability gap: when a mayor asks the Prime Minister for more control over housing, transport and policing, and the Prime Minister is a man who spent a decade making the identical request as a mayor, the answer is less a negotiation than a nostalgic reunion.

A West Midlands Reading of Mayoral Solidarity

Imagine two English metro mayors spending years demanding more authority from Whitehall, only for one of them to become Prime Minister and immediately start fielding calls from the other asking for exactly what they used to ask for together. Solidarity, it turns out, scales beautifully once one half of the friendship controls the budget.

A London open-mic act known as “Nadia Does Northern Line Delays” joked recently: “Khan wants more power. Burnham’s got more power. It’s less devolution, more a very long WhatsApp thread between two blokes who used to complain about the same boss.”

Seven Meetings of the Burnham Khan Mayoral Alliance, Ranked by Ambition

• The Policing Powers Ask, arriving before the removal boxes are unpacked.
• The Housing Budget Ask, framed as “just finishing what we started.”
• The Transport Funding Ask, delivered with a straight face despite the yellow paint precedent.
• The Taxation Powers Ask, the boldest, least likely to succeed.
• The Emergency Bailout Request, filed roughly eighteen months later.
• The Joint Press Conference, heavy on solidarity, light on specifics.
• The Quiet Disagreement, about whose city gets the bigger share.

Analysts at the Institute for Government have previously warned that devolved power without matching devolved accountability risks producing exactly this dynamic: mayors requesting authority from a former mayor who understands the ask a little too well to say no cleanly.

Wordplay Interlude: A Mayor Meeting of Minds

Commentators have taken to calling the pairing a mayor meeting of minds, while others prefer the slightly sharper city-state of the union, given how much of national policy now appears to run through two men who used to run cities and now, functionally, still do.

What the Burnham Khan Mayoral Alliance Means for Everyone Else

For voters outside London and Manchester, the alliance raises an obvious question: if devolved power flows most easily to mayors with a direct line to the Prime Minister, what happens to regions without one? The honest answer, delivered gently, is “join the queue” — and the queue, as ever, forms behind whoever already has the Prime Minister’s mobile number saved under a nickname.

Related Burnham Coverage on Prat.uk

• London Will Finally Be Governed by a Man Who Complained About It
• Burnham’s Rebalance Britain Plan Has a Suspiciously Familiar Postcode
• Burnham Govern London Remotely: Judging From Afar, Now Official
• Burnham Tax London Plan Fights Dependence on London by Taking More of Its Money
• Burnham Devolution Plan Returns Power to Local Communities, Starting With His Own

For American mayors who also formed a very expensive support group after one of them made governor, see our sister publication Bohiney.com.

Auf Wiedersehen, amigo!

Alan Nafzger

Alan Nafzger was born in Lubbock, Texas, the son Swiss immigrants. He grew up on a dairy in Windthorst, north central Texas. He earned degrees from Midwestern State University (B.A. 1985) and Texas State University (M.A. 1987). University College Dublin (Ph.D. 1991). Dr. Nafzger has entertained and educated young people in Texas colleges for 37 years. Nafzger is best known for his dark novels and experimental screenwriting. His best know scripts to date are Lenin’s Body, produced in Russia by A-Media and Sea and Sky produced in The Philippines in the Tagalog language. In 1986, Nafzger wrote the iconic feminist western novel, Gina of Quitaque. He currently lives in Holloway, North London. Contact: [email protected]