This week Jack Blanchard heads north to Manchester to talk music, football, history and politics with Mayor Andy Burnham. In his favored city centre bar, Burnham — currently the favorite to succeed Keir Starmer as Labour leader — talks about his childhood growing up on the outskirts of the city, and how Manchester's legendary music scene inspired him to Cambridge University.

He discusses the highs and the lows of his 20-year career in Westminster, and the struggle he faced even as a senior minister to get the Whitehall machine delivering for the North. He also runs the rule over Starmer's performance as Labour leader so far, and admits his own fears for the future as Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine spirals further and further out of control.

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