The former Minister the Northern Powerhouse and Local Growth Sir Jake Berry has said he believes Andy Burnham’s devolution plans would work if mayors had the powers to change taxes but that the former Mayor never did this.

Speaking on GB News he said: “I actually think there’s quite a lot, if you listen to the speech, which would be hard to be against.

“Would I like to see more jobs and growth in the North of England? Of course I would. I’ve lived and worked in the North most of my life, I was Northern Powerhouse minister in the last government.

“There was just no ‘how we’re going to do it.’

“If we talk about the things that he did say, he said we’re going to look at more nationalisation of the energy industry – not in the Labour Party’s manifesto.

“We know that during the campaign he said he wanted to get closer to Brussels, and ultimately, although he said he changed his mind halfway through the campaign he’d like to rejoin the European Union – not in the Labour Party manifesto.

“He says that he wants to completely fragment, and this is something I don’t support, educational standards across the country. Ultimately his vision sounds like if you go to an educational college in Dorset you might get a different qualification than if you go to one in Derbyshire.

“That doesn’t make sense, because we’ve got one economy and everyone needs the same skills.

“So lots of the things he said he wants to set out to do today, even if you accept that he doesn’t need to hold a General Election because the Labour Party won the last one, which they did spectacularly well, he has no mandate. It wasn’t in the manifesto.

“If you want this real change you should go back to the electorate and ask for it.

“Those of us who have been around for a while will remember Rishi Sunak, another slightly plastic northerner, a bit like Andy Burnham. Rishi Sunak moved part of the Treasury to Darlington.

“He took 2,000 civil servants and he based them in Darlington, the Treasury North. What difference did it make? Zero.

“Andy Burnham, when pushed afterwards, said he was going to spend one day a week in Number 10 North. Rishi Sunak spent two days a week in Treasury North even when he was Prime Minister. No one knew about it; it made no difference.

“We know it won’t work because it’s been tried before and it failed before.

“Andy Burnham, we get it. We saw the election result, he’s got the Manchester vote sewn up. He’s really well liked in Manchester.

“If you live in Cornwall in the far south-west, if you live in Blaenau Gwent in South Wales, or you live in the far North East, what is more government spending and growth going to Manchester going to do for you?

“He will be a prime minister for the cities, but most people in this country don’t live in a city. His whole agenda is about driving cities.

“What if you live in rural Wales? What if you live in rural Scotland? He’s got no ideas for those people.

“I was the minister who negotiated [the buses] deal with him. So I can tell you of all the powers that Andy Burnham has, and he said today he didn’t have enough, he did have one power that he never ever used.

“In fact, when I asked him, he refused to use it: that was the power to raise taxes locally as a business rate.

“Because actually, if you look at the buses in Manchester, I’m really pleased that young people in Manchester can get cheap buses.

“But why should people in Lancashire, just over the border, be the people who are paying for it?

“And the problem with devolution in England, particularly, isn’t that we have too much of it. It’s actually in my view that we don’t have enough of it. This is where I agree with Andy Burnham.

“Devolution would truly work, will truly work when you have to raise the money you spend.

“Devolution works when you’re responsible for what you do.

“If you create tax competition between regions, so if your income tax is lower in Wales than it is in Manchester, you might choose to start your business in Wales.

“It’s worked all over the world. This is what they have in the United States with the federal system. It’s actually what they have in Australia. That’s what Andy Burnham is proposing.

“What you actually find is the minute you give mayors the ability to cut taxes, and they use it, or to raise taxes, and they become more expensive, they drive economic growth properly.”