Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram on getting rivals Manchester and Liverpool to work together Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram will seek to put inter-city rivalries aside and get old adversaries Manchester and Liverpool working […]

Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram will seek to put inter-city rivalries aside and get old adversaries Manchester and Liverpool working together if they both become metro mayors in May.

The two Labour MPs, who are fighting to become the mayors of Greater Manchester and Liverpool City Region, are proposing to join forces in taking on the Government and putting the North West at the forefront of the Northern Powerhouse.

It would mark a sea-change in relations between the two cities, which have been rivals since Mancunian merchants built the Manchester Ship Canal in 1894 to avoid paying hefty dues for exporting cotton goods through the port of Liverpool.

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Leigh MP Andy Burnham, who this week launched his mayoral manifesto in Manchester with a promise to “do politics differently”, told i: “We both talked about this opportunity when we were considering whether to stand.

”Obviously, we would prioritise our own areas first, but there clearly are issues where speaking with one voice would make sense.

“Transport is the obvious example and getting the investment west-to-east rail infrastructure that we need. It’s about building a North West Powerhouse if you like.”

We shouldn’t force it and there will be times when we will be competitive, as Manchester and Liverpool have always been. We will both put our local areas first. But where there is a logic to working together, it’s something we should do. Andy Burnham

Liverpool and Manchester will have a huge head start on other areas of the North when they elect mayors in May, along with the Tees Valley. The North East devolution deal has collapsed, while the South Yorkshire mayoral election has been postponed for a year.

“The North West gets a great headstart here by having agreed devolution deals for our two big city regions,” Mr Burnham said. “If we can start to use our combined weight, we can really begin to rebalance the political debate from South to North.

”We shouldn’t force it and there will be times when we will be competitive, as Manchester and Liverpool have always been. We will both put our local areas first. But where there is a logic to working together, it’s something we should do.

“We feel that this is moment where the North West needs to make its voice heard more clearly than it has ever been heard before.”

Mr Burnham and Mr Rotheram joined forces in September last year to challenge the Government to improve rail links across Northern England and to put pressure on Theresa May to follow up her party’s manifesto commitment to building the Northern Powerhouse.

Areas where Manchester and Liverpool could work more closely include not only transport but also improving links between universities and boosting skills for young people in the two conurbations.

‘A louder political voice’

Liverpool Walton MP Mr Rotheram told i: “The devolution agenda means that, for the first time, the Liverpool and Manchester city regions can put aside those age-old tribal differences and collaborate on projects where it is in our mutual interests to do so, such as on infrastructure and transport.

”For every £6 the South receives in transport funding, the North gets just £1. Andy Burnham and I will challenge the Prime Minister to work with us to begin to close the North-South divide that has grown under the current Government.

“We have already started to work together by demanding a West-East rail link, Crossrail for the North, to connect up the great cities of the North of England and areas in the so-called Northern Powerhouse.

”If we are elected on May 4, we want to give our regions a louder political voice and put the North West at the epicentre of the Government’s theoretical aim to rebalance the economy.”