Sign up to FREE email alerts from Liverpool Echo - Weekly Politics Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Aintree-born shadow home secretary Andy Burnham has today called for Parliament to be moved – temporarily – to St George’s Hall in Liverpool.

The MP made the suggestion in his opening remarks of a speech in which he set out to make “the patriotic case” for Britain’s continued membership.

In the Roscoe lecture in Liverpool’s St George’s Hall to an audience of around eight hundred Mr Burnham said that “one of the benefits of speaking here is that it gives me an opportunity to add my voice to an important campaign”.

He said: “As you may know, the Palace of Westminster may soon have to relocate for a major refurbishment. Wouldn’t it be marvellous if this magnificent building became our temporary Parliament? I think it should.

“Then, the Northern Powerhouse might actually begin to mean something rather more than an extra lane on the M62.”

He also used the speech to thank Liverpool for the “huge support from this city” in last year’s leadership campaign which was eventually won by Jeremy Corbyn, saying: “it helps me show that there is still political life after losing a Labour leadership election”.

Last year Wirral South MP Alison McGovern also suggested Parliament should relocate to St George’s Hall while the Palace of Westminster undergoes repairs.

It is estimated that the taxpayer faces a bill of up to £7.1 billion to stop the iconic home of the Houses of Commons and Lords from falling down unless MPs and peers agree to move out while the work takes place.

Ms McGovern said: “Here in Liverpool we a have a spectacular building in St Georges Hall. It was reopened in 2007 by Prince Charles after a £23m refurbishment programme and it is a place that has for so many years been at the heart of the city. The building certainly has the architectural character to rival the Palace of Westminster.

“It’s even right next to Lime Street, so travelling MPs can get quickly back off to their constituency.

“But more importantly, temporarily relocating Parliament to Liverpool would have significant benefits for democracy. Let’s get our government out of central London and rebalance the centre of power in the UK. We concentrate too much in one city. It’s time to change that.”

Mr Burnham used the Roscoe lecture to attack those campaigning for “Brexit” – Britain to leave the European Union in the referendum to be held on June 23.

He said: “You would think that the Leave campaign are the torch-bearers for British patriotism. The only true Brits. If you want to save the country, you must vote Brexit. This is profoundly misleading. They are peddling a fraudulent form of British patriotism that does not offer a return to Britain’s past but a decisive break from it.

READ: 17 things European funding has done for Merseyside

“I’m going to say something that I think people don’t hear anything like enough from people on the left of politics. I love this country, our country. I feel proud to be British. I don’t subscribe to the current fashion of putting more narrow loyalties first – I am British before I am English.

“If we vote to leave, Britain would be instantly diminished as a nation. We would lose influence on the world stage and in the eyes of other countries. Britain would be a lesser force.

“In 1948, Winston Churchill gave a speech in which he said Britain drew its strength as a nation from its position at the heart of what he called ‘three majestic circles’: the Commonwealth; the English-speaking world; and a United Europe.”