Labour MPs warn Burnham's 10-year plan lacks the radicalism and detail needed to revive heavy industry

On Wednesday, a group of Labour MPs will sit down with Sally Jameson, the Cabinet Office minister, to tell her they fear Andy Burnham's flagship 10-year plan for government will fall short. The MPs belong to the Reindustrialisation Research Group, known as the ReRG. Many of them represent "red wall" seats that helped deliver Labour's landslide in 2024.

Their main worry is heavy industry. Members of the group say Britain's heavy industries are being crushed by high energy prices and a lack of government support, and they doubt the plan will do enough to change that. Andy MacNae, who leads the group, said there are many gaps in the government's reindustrialisation strategy and that the 10-year plan is a chance to fill them. But in the briefings MPs have received, he said, that is not what they are seeing. He credited ministers with good engagement, yet said the group needs something more constructive. The risk, he warned, is that reindustrialisation never arrives and deindustrialisation continues.

Jonathan Hinder, another member, said reindustrialisation cannot rest on political slogans. In his view the country is going in the wrong direction and needs fairly drastic action, which he said this government is not yet delivering.

Burnham has billed the plan as the defining blueprint for his time in office. It is meant to cover bringing utilities under public control, cutting bills and creating a national care service. MPs had been told to expect it before the end of the year, but last week the prime minister said it could slip to January. Burnham has suggested industry will sit at the heart of his economic agenda, and the chancellor, John Healey, promised at this year's Labour conference a "new age of industrialisation". Many MPs, though, feel the rhetoric has not yet been matched by policy.

The budget is the example they point to. Before it, the ReRG asked Healey to expand the British industrial competitiveness scheme, which lowers energy costs for about 10,000 businesses. The chancellor instead announced a £100 council tax rebate to help households with energy bills over the winter, and made no change to the business scheme.

The group now wants the 10-year plan to include immediate energy bill support for industrial companies. It also wants a minister for reindustrialisation, and for No 10 North in Manchester to be empowered to oversee the agenda. Some MPs are uneasy about ministerial briefings in recent days that suggest the plan will be a modest document, subject to lengthy consultation.

There is also confusion over who is writing it. Peter Hyman, who previously advised Keir Starmer on his missions, is reported to be overseeing the process, although officials insist Burnham himself will take the key decisions. Many MPs are also troubled by the involvement of Boston Consulting Group, which previously employed Burnham's chief of staff, James Purnell, and is helping draw up the plan. One MP called the idea of BCG helping to reindustrialise Britain "a tragic joke". Downing Street says BCG is supplying just one consultant.

Burnham has pushed back. He told the Economist last week that people are underestimating the plan's significance, and that inaccurate briefing this week was intended to play it down. He promised a clear vision that would be substantial and compelling because it weaves different threads together. What to watch now is whether the final document, possibly delayed to January, includes energy support, a reindustrialisation minister or a bigger role for No 10 North.