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Expected Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he wants to split his time running the country between the North and Downing Street. In a speech in Manchester, where he recently quit as mayor to become an MP, the would-be leader of the nation said a “No 10 North” in the city would be “the nerve centre of a rewired Britain”.

It’s understood Mr Burnham, who refused to take questions from the press after his speech on Monday, will spend a day or two a week in the North West as and when his schedule allows. It’s reported the 56-year-old also plans to keep his family home near Wigan and only use Number 10 when he is working in the capital.

Mr Burnham is expected to undergo his Labour coronation as Prime Minister in July and he used his first speech as a PM-in-waiting to set out his new Left-wing manifesto. He said: “It will be the conduit through which we redistribute power and resources across the UK.”

He added Whitehall would be forced to give up power to places across the country.

On plans to move power away from Downing Street, The Mail reports one friend of Mr Burnham said: “He will not be using No 10 as his main home, he’ll be staying in Golborne.

“He said if he was elected prime minister, he wouldn’t forget where he was from, and he meant it.”

Another ally said: “This isn’t just part of a political strategy. It’s who Andy Burnham is. He isn’t just from the North, he’s of the North. It made him.”

In his first major speech since Sir Keir Starmer announced he would be leaving Downing Street, Mr Burnham pledged to pull people together in the “broadest possible coalition” to revive hope across the country.

The Makerfield MP, who gave up being mayor of Greater Manchester to return to Parliament in a by-election earlier this month, said: “Westminster has not been working for people and it has not been working for a very long time. In fact, it is broken.

“And as a result, the country isn’t where it should be. It is stuck in a rut, and clearly we can’t go on like this.”

Drawing inspiration from Germany, he said No10 North would be “given a mission to strive for equivalent living conditions in all parts of Britain”.

The department would also have three “clear tasks” of increasing public ownership of essential utilities such as water, energy and housing; reindustrialisation; and regeneration.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the UK faces a “summer of chaos” while Mr Burnham works out what he wants to do and who he wants in his government.

The Tory leader said Mr Burnham should sack Energy Secretary Ed Miliband rather than potentially promoting him to become chancellor, claiming business chiefs were “terrified” of him being in No 11. She compared Mr Miliband’s approach to energy policy to the military dictators she had known as a child in Nigeria.

In a speech in London, Mrs Badenoch said the economy was “in limbo” while businesses waited to see what Mr Burnham would do. She said: “People are worried about capital gains tax, so they are changing their investment decisions.

“The car industry is in limbo again because they do not know when petrol cars will be phased out. Everyone is terrified about what will happen if Ed Miliband becomes the chancellor.

“The same is true in every sector of the economy. Britain is facing a summer of chaos.”