Andy Burnham picks Greater Manchester CEO to oversee devolution of power at No 10 North

Andy Burnham has asked the chief executive of the Greater Manchester combined authority to be his deputy chief of staff, leading the new No 10 North, if as expected he becomes prime minister in three weeks’ time.

Caroline Simpson, who worked closely with Burnham when he was mayor, will be based in Manchester to oversee the devolution of power and resources across the UK that he promised would transform the country.

The Guardian understands that she will work alongside cabinet ministers and senior civil servants in Whitehall, as well as the devolved regions and nations, to drive economic growth across the country.

Burnham has already appointed James Purnell, his former colleague from the Tony Blair era, as his chief of staff as he begins to finalise his team for government. It is not yet decided whether Simpson will be the only deputy.

Simpson has spent her whole career in the public sector, primarily in the north-west of England, for organisations including local government, housing and regional development agencies. She took over at GMCA in June 2024.

In a speech in Manchester on Monday, Burnham confirmed he would set up No 10 North as the “nerve centre of a rewired Britain”, arguing that the Westminster system was “broken” and needed a radical devolution of power to transform the country.

The new office would have three “clear tasks” for devolution: to increase public ownership of essential utilities such as water, energy and housing; re-industrialise swathes of the country; and regenerate towns, prioritising places that had been left behind.

Simpson, a career civil servant who has never worked in national government, has risen quickly to one of the most powerful roles in local government as the chief executive of Burnham’s Greater Manchester combined authority.

Having started her career in the West Midlands, she spent eight years at Cheshire East council leading the economies of Crewe, Macclesfield and surrounding towns.

Only four years ago, Simpson became chief executive of Stockport council where she was credited with overseeing a £1bn investment in its revived town centre.

Described as Burnham’s “right-hand woman”, Simpson has overseen Greater Manchester’s £3bn-a-year budget since 2024, putting the soon-to-be prime minister’s vision of “Manchesterism” into practice.

One senior official who worked closely with Simpson said she was “effective and very PR-minded, very slick”: “Often I found with the dead hand of local bureaucracy if you ring her things got done.”

Another said she had “quite a meteoric rise but is good and well respected”, adding that she “sometimes goes along with Andy’s stuff too easily, rather than pushing back until it’s ready and ends up clearing up the mess or trying to make it work”.

They pointed out that her departure would leave the Greater Manchester combined authority searching for a third chief executive in just over two years – at the same time as 2 million voters choose the successor to Burnham in one of the biggest byelections in modern British politics on 30 July.

Simpson has said she “fell into” her first job in the public sector after studying Japanese and business studies at Liverpool John Moores University. She had the opportunity to use her language skills when welcoming Japanese mayors to Manchester last year.