Andy Burnham is wrong. It’s not Labour London that’s a problem it’s London-centric Head Offices
Andy Burnham’s argument(Guardian 14th May link below) that Labour policy making should be less London-centric (14.5) feeds unfortunatley into the ‘North=poor and neglected; South=wealthy’ myth. When E P Thompson wrote about the birth of the Independent Labour Party in Homage to Tom Maguire (1960) he argued that the labour movement was born in those ‘shadowy parts’ known as the ‘provinces’, and saw this as a positive. He contrasted this however not with London but with the thinking that came of London HQs of unions and political organisations.
In reality many parts of London, my own of Tottenham included, are just as poor and neglected by the Tories as many parts of the north of England. They also vote Labour as the victory for Sadiq Khan as London Mayor on 6th May underlines.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/13/keir-starmer-english-devolution-labour
Having lived in London including Tottenham and for 35 years having lived in the North (Merseyside) I feel that devolution to the North will challenge the massive inequality in London. I would hope that a socialist federal Britain would follow.