Exclusive:Mayor Oliver Coppard hopeful of Prime Minister Andy Burnham visiting Sheffield
‘He changed my view about what an MP could be, what a politician could be’
South Yorkshire’s Mayor is “hopeful” that newly-appointed Prime Minister Andy Burnham will visit Sheffield and support improvements to South Yorkshire.
Mayor Oliver Coppard has often cited the new PM as an inspiration when laying out his plans for the future of South Yorkshire.
Before being elected as MP for Makerfield in June, 2026, Mr Burnham was Mayor of Greater Manchester for nine years, in which he revitalised public transport through the ‘Bee Network’.
Mr Coppard has hoped to recreate that success with the new South Yorkshire People’s Network, having already taken Supertram back under public control and with plans to do the same with buses in 2027.
And so as Mr Burnham took over Downing Street on Monday (July 20), there is hope in the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) office that he will continue the efforts he began in Manchester, providing the funding and opportunities for mayors across the country to tackle their region’s unique problems.
“Andy is somebody that I first met 20 years ago, who for me was probably the first person I met in politics who was a human being in a way that I just hadn't experienced before,” Mr Coppard said.
“I met him when I was an intern in Parliament and was literally doing the photocopying for an event that he was involved in. But he found me out afterwards and said thank you for the work that I'd done on the event.
“He was a new MP at the time and I remember thinking politicians didn't do that. They didn't find out the most junior person and say thank you to them.
“It sort of changed my view about what an MP could be, what a politician could be, and I think he’s been true to that vision of who I thought he was ever since.”
He said that despite heading down to London now, Mr Burnham is still in a WhatsApp group chat for mayors, with Mr Coppard joking: “We’re all sending our little messages along.”
Since first announcing his ambitions to become Prime Minister, Mr Burnham has spoken at length about how he hopes to move power out of Westminster and provide support to often forgotten northern towns.
He hopes to achieve this plan through the new ‘Number 10 North’ - an office in Manchester that will take over some of the Government’s responsibilities - and furthering devolution, which will move power into the hands of local authorities.
It is a decision that has been welcomed by Mr Coppard, who said: “I think what Andy is saying - and what I truly believe - is that devolution gives power back to places so that we can collectively, when decisions are made, have our voices heard.
“And that doesn’t mean that every decision will be perfect, far from it. Of course there will always be difficult decisions to make, there will always be challenges that we need to overcome, but it does mean that people will have control over decisions that right now we just don’t.
“In future, if people aren’t happy with the decisions are made on their behalf, they get to change who makes those decisions, and that has to be how democracy works.
“People should have a voice in what their places are like and at the moment, all too often, I’m left saying to people ‘I’m sorry I can’t do anything about that’ - even when it’s something that affects people’s day-to-day life here in a really significant way.”
While the whole of the north may benefit from these changes, South Yorkshire seems particularly well placed, as three local MPs ascend to the cabinet, while Burnham himself described former Sheffield MP Lord Blunkett as his “truest mentor.”
“He speaks very fondly of Sheffield and of South Yorkshire more broadly,” Mr Coppard added.
“He’s clearly worked closely with Dan Jarvis (Barnsley North MP) previously, knows our football very well - I have spoken to him at length about the music scene of South Yorkshire [and] he was chatting just recently to John McClure of Reverend and the Makers.
“He is somebody that knows South Yorkshire very well, both because of the long shared history between [Manchester and Sheffield], the transport connectivity and the challenges there which we spoke about at length, but a bunch of other things besides.
“I’ve got no doubt we’ll see him here in the not too distant future.”