‘Manchesterism,’ Andy Burnham declared in his Makerfield by-election campaign video, ‘is the end of neoliberalism.’ The path to power, he believes, lies in the Mancunian Way. Not the ring road that sits atop Manchester’s actual Downing Street, but his record as mayor of Britain’s ‘second city’ – and the idea that it proves his philosophy of unlocking growth and productivity for the whole country. Yet the Mancunian Way is littered with potholes.

Manchesterism is not new. It did not begin with Burnham, nor with any Labour figure in Manchester. The name is borrowed – stolen, really – from the free-trade Manchester Liberalism of Richard Cobden and John Bright, who fought price-fixing, tariffs and protectionism in the 19th century. Disraeli sneered at what he called ‘the Manchester School’. No matter, the school only grew; Margaret Thatcher was practically an alumna, steeped in its ideas.

Burnham’s version is different, and comes with its own phrasebook – ‘good growth’, ‘business-friendly socialism’, ‘growth in every postcode’. That last one is too much for Graham Stringer, former leader of Manchester city council and now Labour MP for Blackley and Middleton South: ‘Nonsense like “growth in every postcode” is just ridiculous. How could you ever achieve that? It’s attractive until you think about it for two seconds.’

His clean-air zone swallowed a reported £104 million, before public backlash killed it

His clean-air zone swallowed a reported £104 million, before public backlash killed it

It’s not only the name that’s been lifted. What success Manchester has had, Burnham inherited. The city’s turnaround did not begin with a socialist rejection of neoliberalism, as Stringer, council leader from 1984, can attest. ‘We were elected on a very radical anti-Thatcher manifesto,’ he recalls. Ten days into the job, he delivered a speech to the chamber of commerce – ‘lead balloons would have floated high’ by comparison – before a building executive took him to the 22nd-floor window and taught him a lesson. ‘He said: “There’s not a single tower crane. You’ll be a........

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