Josh Halliday

You know, politics has achieved something.

capping bus fares at two pound whereas previously you'd paid more than four quid for a you know single journey which is shocking free bus passes for 16 to 18 year olds lots of you know lots of good things to help people with the cost of living most of greater manchester he's a very popular mayor you know he's there were some stats out about the manchester seeing the the biggest fall in inner city deprivation that anywhere else in the country you know they can point to the rapid rise of

Buildings across Greater Manchester, particularly Central Manchester, office blocks, new residential apartments.

You know, it's been the fastest growing city economy, I think, of anywhere in the UK over the past decade.

Well, this is the thing, right?

Because lots of the success of Manchester was set in train two decades before he became mayor of Greater Manchester.

That has just accelerated under his leadership.

Whether he can take all the credit for that, I think he can't.

But that said, there is a lot that he can point to and be proud of, I think, in his record as mayor.

During COVID, I think I was probably in a press conference or on the phone with Andy Burnham either every day or every week.

COVID for Andy Burnham was, you know, this...

epitome of an over-centralized government in that the government were deciding policy on the basis of a small room rather than listening to the needs of the rest of the country and what was actually happening in the rest of the country yeah and he wasn't this kind of laissez-faire let's all go out politician he was quite serious he was listening to what experts were saying what was actually happening in the rest of the country sorry to interrupt you but we are going to hear from andy burnham i'm sure you'll want to hear this too

He wasn't invited to the Cobra meetings in London, so he used the media basically to get his message across to national government.

And I think people saw him as that voice for the North.

There's that particular moment where he stood outside Bridgewater Hall in the centre of Manchester in this jacket and, you know, really, you know, incredibly righteous fury directed down the camera lenses towards Boris Johnson.

lose their income.

Saying Greater Manchester would not accept any more restrictions without consultation.

You know, that was kind of the making of him, you know, in a public sense.

You know, people really became aware of who he was outside of Greater Manchester at that point, I think.

You know, there were beers named after him, King of the North IPA.