It’s not just Conservative politicians popping up at the Tory party conference this year: Labour’s Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has appeared at some fringe events to wax lyrical about the successes of devolution, his hopes for a Manchester tourist tax and reform of council tax. But just a week after the Labour Party conference, Burnham didn’t gloss over the rather, er, frosty welcome he received in Liverpool. ‘I’ll probably get a better reception here than I did last week,’ he quipped at the Centre for Cities event.

Burnham wouldn’t rate the performance of the Labour government out of ten – but he did pack a few subtle digs into his discussion about Sir Keir Starmer and his cronies back in London. He continually emphasised that he was ‘place first, not party first’ and added: ‘I

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