ANDY Burnham launched his campaign to be the Mayor of Greater Manchester at HOME which is just a stone throw away from the Hacienda, a location Burnham described as somewhere that ‘couldn’t be more Manchester’.

The Leigh MP opened his hour-long speech by joking that this was not the best day to launch his campaign because of the US election and that he had been ‘trumped’.

During his speech, Burnham promised that young people would be at the heart of his vision for Manchester, not the target for cuts.

He promised that young people will be his priority for investment and that he will do this by helping young people get on the housing ladder and also through building more council houses.

He warned his party activists that : ‘’The left has got to offer people better answers than what we have been doing so far.

“We’ve got to get closer to people and not just listen but respond to what they are saying and bring forward different ideas because if we don’t others will fill the streets with hate.’’

Burnham, who has decided to leave Westminster to focus on the people of Greater Manchester, attacked Prime Minister Theresa May’s government for having a ‘London-centric outlook on life’ and that the government has turned their backs on the ‘Northern-powerhouse’.

The political figure argued that people are looking at Manchester to take on Westminster because ‘we have never liked being told what to do’.

The Leigh MP urged the people of Manchester to fight against May trying to bring back Grammar schools saying that he didn’t want to see a society where “children are written off at the age of 11.”

Burnham told the 700,000 people in Greater Manchester that he understood their concerns about the European Union and respected their decision to vote leave.

He also called upon his activists by saying: “It’s not what I’m going to do for you, it’s what we are all gonna do together to fix our broken politics.

“We need answers based on hope and not hate.”

Labour member,Richard, said after the speech: “I thought Andy’s speech was great. He reached out to the people who wanted to leave the European Union and promised to fight for all those left behind.”

Watch the live stream of the event:

By Lana Guy

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