Andy Burnham vowed to end rough sleeping in Britain as he pledged to bring “care” back into politics. The new Prime Minister described his arrival as a “circuit breaker for Britain” as he greeted his supporters in Downing Street. “I want to be honest with you: we have not been good enough and we need to be better,” he told those gathered and everyone around the country drumming their fingers for real change.
Burnham pledged a 10-year plan for Britain to be delivered later in the year, but said he would set out some policy plans as soon as Tuesday to give voters “some breathing space” with the cost of living.
Burnham wants the public to believe he’s a normal bloke at No 10 and the trappings of office won’t change him. Your priorities are his priorities. The banquets, international summits, fame, power, and procedure will not sway him. He will be straightforward in the face of Westminster’s cynicism. He will help the rough sleepers, as he has in Manchester.
The short version is: I’m not Keir Starmer. Starmer did not listen to his party or the country, Burnham implied. Where Starmer jetted around the world, Burnham will remain a normal bloke in a T-shirt (except when seeing the King, when a suit is only polite). He will spend a lot of time in Manchester and continue to sit in the same seat for Everton home games, which Starmer did not manage at the Emirates for security reasons. Symbolically, he did not have a lectern between him and the public when he entered No 10 for the first time as Prime Minister.
Starmer had around 200 supporters gathered around for a dignified exit. Any private fury has been successfully disguised in public. “I go with good grace, I go with a smile, and I go proud of everything we have achieved,” he said behind a lectern, before being driven to Buckingham Palace to resign.
The cogs of constitutional change move quickly. Only an hour or so later, Burnham arrived. Burnham had even more fans. It felt as if the entire northwest had decamped to watch their man arrive. The PM’s mother Eileen – formidable by all accounts – was bursting with pride. His wife Marie-France van Heel clutched his hand. Burnham’s key political ally Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram clutched his baby grandson. Longtime aide Kevin Lee in a Labour-red polo shirt got a bear hug, while ex-footballer Peter Reid watched on.
This speech was big on vision and short on detail. We know he favours ending deindustrialisation, privatisation and regional inequalities. He acknowledges a widespread perception that prevailing Westminster thinking has failed, particularly for working-class people.
“Let’s build a new national sense of unity, of common purpose and positivity,” he urged.
He knows too that voters are sick of undelivered promises. Burnham instead wants immediate “tangible” improvements to tackle the high cost of living. Expect early direction of travel to ease cost-of-living pressures. He told The Times that the freezing of income tax thresholds was a source of deep anger for people in his Makerfield constituency. More likely could be reducing the Universal Credit taper rate, which automatically deducts 55p from claimants’ benefits for every £1 they earn over their work allowance.
And we have also had early plans to cut energy bills and reduce bus fares, with his allies discussing restoring the £2 cap on bus travel.
The big unanswered question is clear: how on earth will he pay for his plans? He faces a £4.7 billion black hole in the defence budget, and he wants to take Thames Water into public ownership, which will require upfront spending even if it is clawed back eventually. Burnham has said pubs, clubs and music venues will receive a 20 per cent cut in business rates, while smaller, independent hospitality, leisure and retail companies would have the threshold for paying business rates raised for the first time since 2017.
According to Crisis’s 2018 PWC-modelled plan it would cost an estimated £19.3bn to end homelessness in Britain between 2018 and 2041, although it would benefit the nation to the tune of £53.9bn, as well as being the right thing to do.
Mindful that the bond markets are watching closely, he has been careful to say any government spending will not come from extra borrowing.
Which leaves tax rises. An increase in capital gains tax is thought to be on the table. Burnham has previously said he’s “long been persuaded of the argument for a land value tax” and is “personally keen to see reform of council tax,” calling it “a highly regressive tax” and saying he sees “a big case for land and property and business taxation to be changed.”
People around Burnham – including one of his closest political allies, Steve Rotheram – keep making the case for a wealth tax. Last week, Burnham said “I’m not going to rule things out right now.” He said today he will “set out some of those measures starting tomorrow, including how we pay for them.”
Monday was historic. Only two years after a whopping landslide, Starmer was out. On Downing Street Burnham said he is “acutely conscious” of the UK’s high turnover of prime ministers – and that politics needs to be more stable and responsible, characterising the moment as one of “reflection and new resolution”, arguing Britain must be honest about the challenges it faces.
“My generation of politicians needs to raise our game,” he said. “I know people at home are fed up of politics,” he said, pledging to fix the mistakes of the last 40 years.
Burnham became the UK’s 59th prime minister – and seventh in 10 years. That says as much about Britain’s volatility as it does about the man taking the job. But it should be a warning. However laid back he is, however different to Starmer, the public won’t give him long to show change. He may care, but he needs to act.
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