The prime minister will host the Irish taoiseach at No 10 North in Manchester this morning, in a deliberate bid to cement the building’s status as a genuine seat of government power beyond the capital. Micheál Martin’s visit marks the first time an overseas leader has been received at the prime minister’s northern base, and it signals a concerted effort by Andy Burnham to project British diplomacy from outside London.
The meeting, scheduled for 10am, is expected to be a notably warm affair. Burnham, who was born in Liverpool and raised in Culcheth — a village straddling the Lancashire-Cheshire border mid-way between Liverpool and Manchester — has long worn his northern identity as a badge of honour. He supports a Merseyside football club, counts Irish ancestry among his roots, and was the subject of a light-hearted jibe at the weekend when Sinn Féin’s president, Mary Lou McDonald, joked about Liverpool being “the 33rd county of Ireland” during a summit in Cardiff with the SNP and Plaid Cymru leaders.
The atmosphere, by all accounts, will be cordial. The two men are no strangers. When Burnham served as Mayor of Greater Manchester, he met Martin on several occasions, including visits to Ireland, and the taoiseach marked Burnham’s elevation to Downing Street with a statement praising him as “a great champion of deeper links between Ireland and Britain”.
A diplomatic statement, not a photo opportunity
Downing Street made clear in its overnight briefing that this is no mere ceremonial encounter. The visit is part of a calculated strategy by Burnham to use meetings with foreign heads of government to shine a light on parts of the United Kingdom that rarely feature on the diplomatic map. It follows hot on the heels of visits from Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in Liverpool and Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte in Oxford, while a previous meeting with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took place in Portsmouth.
The message is unambiguous: the prime minister wants the world to know that Britain’s global role is not confined to the M25.
Talks are expected to focus on what No 10 describes as “shared objectives including boosting trade, supporting Ukraine, and working with the European Union as Ireland continues its presidency of the EU”. After the formal sessions, the two leaders will visit an Irish community centre in the city, a nod to the deep and enduring ties between Ireland and the north-west of England.
Healey presses UK’s case in Dublin
While Burnham plays host in Manchester, the Chancellor, John Healey, will be in Dublin for an informal meeting of Ecofin, the EU’s council of finance ministers. The engagement is more than a matter of diplomatic courtesy. The UK is pushing hard for an exemption from the EU’s “Made in Europe” procurement rules, which threaten to shut British firms out of lucrative European public contracts.
Treasury sources briefing overnight indicated that Healey will urge Brussels to implement the rules in a way that “lands a good deal for all” rather than “erecting new barriers”. It is a delicate ask — Britain left the EU, but now wants preferential access to its procurement market — and Healey will be making the case directly to his European counterparts that a protectionist approach would harm both sides.
The optics of the day are carefully choreographed: a prime minister in Manchester, a chancellor in Dublin, and a government in London insisting that the UK’s post-Brexit relationship with Europe can be both pragmatic and productive.
A friendship with deep roots
It would be wrong to underestimate the personal dimension of today’s meeting. Burnham and Martin have developed a genuine rapport over the years, built on shared Celtic heritage and a mutual belief that the Irish Sea should be a bridge, not a barrier. Burnham’s own family connections to Ireland are a matter of personal pride, and he has spoken warmly in the past of his affection for the country.
That warmth was reciprocated when Martin issued his statement on Burnham’s rise to the premiership, and it is expected to be very much in evidence today. The visit to the Irish community centre will provide a human counterpoint to the formal talks — a reminder that diplomacy, at its core, is about people and the bonds between them.
For Burnham, however, the occasion also serves a domestic political purpose. His repeated use of No 10 North — the former Manchester town hall extended complex — is designed to rebut critics who accuse him of running a branch office rather than a power base. Hosting a foreign head of government is a significant step in that project, and one that will not be lost on Westminster observers.
Why it Matters
This meeting is about more than Anglo-Irish pleasantries. It is a tangible demonstration of how Burnham intends to govern: visibly northern, deliberately decentralising, and unafraid to use the trappings of power to make a political point. With the UK seeking to recalibrate its relationship with the EU, and with Ireland holding the bloc’s presidency, the timing is significant. A warm personal rapport between the two leaders, buttressed by a shared interest in trade and stability, could oil the wheels of negotiations in ways that formal diplomatic channels often cannot. For the prime minister, today is an opportunity to show that his vision of a levelled-up Britain is not just rhetoric — it is a diplomatic reality.
