Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham gave a stirring speech at BusinessCloud’s Northern Leaders Awards.
After being named as the winner of the Politician of the Year, Burnham praised the contribution of Sir Howard Bernstein, who inspired Northern Leaders.
Burnham said Manchester was unrecognisable from the city he graduated from in 1991.
He told the audience at KPMG’s Manchester offices: “The big difference from then is that if you are a young person growing up now, you no longer have to go south to get on in life. That was our reality.
“For any of us in this room, born in that era, we had to do that. We would have suffered a big loss of career opportunity if we stayed, but that’s not the case anymore.
“Look at this building that we’re in tonight and look at the people around you – there is one person who made that happen more than anybody else, and that is Sir Howard Bernstein.
“We feel the weight of expectation. We were at Sir Howard’s amazing memorial (in November 2024) but I think many of us left thinking: ‘How are we going to deal with this pressure?’
“But we’re going to rise to it – we are absolutely going to do Sir Howard proud.
“I learned how to speak for the North and how to advocate for the North from Sir Howard.
“We all learned so much from him because he fearlessly, fearlessly worked to be a champion for the North.
“We’ve found our voice in recent years and that’s why I’m here now looking at a room full of Northern Leaders.”
Earlier this month it was revealed that Burnham had agreed a plan to take over eight commuter train lines.
He said: “I say to everyone else from every other part of the North, we’re (Greater Manchester) not the London of the North. We’re here to work with you as well.
“We’ve found a really clear way of communicating that we’re not going to accept the way we were treated in the past, we’re not going to accept that our friends, our neighbours and everyone who lives here can be treated as a second class citizen when it comes to transport.
“For me, that change came with Sir Howard and what he did, he gave us the ability to speak like that and to change the script.
“For me, the North of England will forever be different in the 21st Century because of what Sir Howard, and now others following behind him, did.
“I think we should all collectively feel that weight of expectation but agree amongst ourselves to rise to it – to make sure that we do the same, we do justice to what’s gone before.”
The headline sponsors for Northern Leaders were OBI. They were joined by Co-op Live, CG, GM Business Growth Hub and Rochdale Development Agency.
There were a total of 15 categories up for grabs with 19 winners from across the North revealed.
The winner of the final award – the Northern Leaders Overall Award – was presented to former England and Manchester City captain Steph Houghton MBE.