Andy Burnham is hoping to live up to his 'King of the North' credentials by moving part of his Downing Street operation up to Manchester, it has emerged.

The would-be prime minister is said to be looking to set up a 'No10 in the North' as part of his bid to decentralise power away from Westminster.

The idea has been compared to US President Donald Trump's fondness for splitting his time between his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, as well as the White House in Washington DC.

Mr Burnham is almost certain to succeed Keir Starmer as PM and could enter Downing Street as soon as 17 July if he's the only leadership candidate to be nominated by Labour MPs.

The new Makerfield MP - who has returned to the House of Commons after a nine-year spell as Greater Manchester mayor - has frequently criticised a concentration of power in London.

When he quit Westminster in 2016 to campaign to become Greater Manchester mayor, Mr Burnham claimed 'voters have a problem with an out-of-touch elite who don't seem to care'.

Moving part of his Downing Street operation away from Westminster would be a similar move to Tory former chancellor Rishi Sunak's decision to create a new Treasury hub in Darlington.

One person briefed on Mr Burnham's plans told the Financial Times: 'Andy has big plans on devolution and that includes having an office in the North.'

A spokesperson for the Labour leadership contender did not deny Mr Burnham is looking to relocate some No10 officials away from Westminster.

But they said they couldn't yet provide any more details.

Establishing a new No10 office outside of Downing Street would prompt concerns about its detachment from the rest of Whitehall, while there would be security complications if Mr Burnham decided to spend part of his working time there. 

A former Downing Street official said of the idea: 'In practice I think he will find this hard as No10 is very institutionally defensive about its place at the heart of Westminster. But good luck to him.'

Ben Houchen, the Tory mayor of the Tees Valley, told Mr Burnham that a 'No10 in the North' had already been established.

He said: 'This already exists. Rishi Sunak created it in Darlington when Chancellor and expanded it when PM.

'The Government are currently in the middle of building a dedicated building for tens of millions of pounds for this purpose and to accommodate the 1,000 civil servants already working there.'