Andy Burnham spends first working day at new No 10 North in Manchester – UK politics live

Andy Burnham has defended the cost of opening No 10 North in Manchester, telling “London-based” critics that it’s better to have “a north pole that balances the south pole”.

Speaking to staff at the new centre, he said: “At least it creates that sense of a more balanced country, and that big things can be done from here.”

Heron House is temporarily accommodating No 10 North while a brownfield site just outside the city is being developed, where it is expected to relocate permanently once construction is complete.

As my colleagues Hannah Al-Othman and Priya Bharadia reported earlier this month, any “No 10” buildings “could be constructed without significant cost above that already signed off by the Treasury”.

double quotation markDai Davies, a former head of royal protection and a former divisional commander in the Metropolitan police, dubbed Burnham’s Manchester base as “Number 10A”.

“Number 10A will have to be strengthened,” he said, “and, of course, there’ll have to be a 24-hour-7 protection. So it’s going to cost us taxpayers millions in terms of technical security, surveillance, cameras.

“Depending on where it is, it may have to have underground detection systems, it probably will have to have a safe room, and Manchester police will have to bear the burden of protection, in the uniform sense, 24-7, I suspect. So the real cost is many millions of pounds.”