Labour MPs Warn Burnham's 10-Year Plan Risks Falling Short on Industry

Labour MPs will tell a Cabinet Office minister on Wednesday that Andy Burnham's 10-year plan for government risks delivering "the risk is we don't see reindustrialisation at all, and continue to see deindustrialisation."

The warning comes from the Reindustrialisation Research Group (ReRG), a caucus of Labour MPs — many representing "red wall" seats that helped deliver the party's 2024 landslide — who are meeting Sally Jameson to press their case that the prime minister's long-term strategy lacks detail and ambition on reviving Britain's heavy industries.

What do the MPs actually want?

Their immediate demand is energy relief for manufacturers. High energy prices and thin government support, they argue, are crushing the industrial employers in their constituencies.

The group's asks for the 10-year plan are specific:

• Immediate energy bill support for industrial companies
• Creation of a minister for reindustrialisation
• Empowering No 10 North in Manchester to oversee the agenda

Before the budget, the ReRG called on the chancellor, John Healey, to expand the British industrial competitiveness scheme, which cuts energy costs for roughly 10,000 businesses. Healey instead announced a £100 council tax rebate to help households pay winter energy bills — and left the business support scheme unchanged.

How big is the rift?

Andy MacNae, who heads the group, was blunt about the gaps. "There are a lot of gaps in the government's reindustrialisation strategy which are not yet filled. The 10-year plan is a chance to fill them, but in the briefings we have been given that is not what we are seeing," he said.

"We have had really good engagement from ministers, but we need to see something more constructive and we are just not seeing that at the moment. The risk is we don't see reindustrialisation at all, and continue to see deindustrialisation."

Fellow ReRG member Jonathan Hinder went further. "Making reindustrialisation cannot just be about political slogans. We are going in the wrong direction and we need pretty drastic action, but we are not yet seeing that from this government," he said.

The friction matters politically. Many of these MPs represent former industrial areas that proved vital to Labour's 2024 win, and they are counting on the plan to include concrete measures to encourage manufacturing.

Who is writing the plan — and who is advising?

The process itself is a sore point. MPs had been told to expect the plan before the end of the year, but Burnham said last week it could slip to January. Briefings from ministers in recent days suggest, according to several MPs, a modest document subject to lengthy consultation.

Many MPs say they don't know who is leading the drafting. Peter Hyman, who previously advised Keir Starmer on his missions, is reported to be overseeing the writing — though officials insist Burnham himself will make the key decisions.

Then there is Boston Consulting Group. MPs are uneasy about the consultancy's involvement because it previously employed Burnham's chief of staff, James Purnell. One MP didn't mince words: "The idea that BCG are going to be involved in reindustrialising Britain feels like a tragic joke."

Downing Street has pushed back, saying BCG is providing just one consultant to the process.

What is Burnham promising?

The prime minister has billed the plan as the defining blueprint of his government: bringing utilities under public control, reducing bills and establishing a national care service. Healey promised "a new age of industrialisation" at this year's Labour conference.

Burnham, for his part, insists the document will surprise its critics. "People are underestimating the significance of this. There's been briefing around this week, inaccurate briefing … to try and play [it] down. I will lay out my very clear vision for Britain, and it will be substantial, and it will also be, in my view, compelling because I am weaving the different threads together," he told the Economist last week.

The Wednesday meeting with Jameson will test whether that vision, when it lands in January, matches what the MPs who delivered Labour's majority say their industrial constituencies need.