Andy Burnham has announced he will give away 15% of his salary as Prime Minister to homeless charities after pledging to end rough sleeping.
It comes after the Labour leader launched a new national drive this week to offer every person sleeping rough a bed this winter. Downing Street said the move would be backed with £442million in extra funding to tackle the blight of homelessness in England.
Rallying call to end rough sleeping
Mr Burnham, whose first instruction inside No10 was to end rough sleeping, also issued a "rallying call" to get rough sleepers off the street by Christmas. But he admitted Government money alone may not be enough to solve the problem — and the community and faith organisations must play their part.
Mr Burnham has previously said he would give away 15% of his salary as the MP for Makerfield, which currently stands at £98,599, to local causes. Speaking to the Big Issue magazine, he said this week he would also donate 15% of his separate salary he can claim as Prime Minister of £75,440.
Personal commitment to lead from the front
It means he is set to give away £26,105 of his total salary this year to local causes in his Makerfield constituency and homeless charities.
The PM said: "I want to continue that commitment. For the best part of nine, almost 10 years, I donated 15% of my salary as mayor of Greater Manchester to tackling homelessness in Greater Manchester.
"I am making a commitment to donate the same of my Prime Minister's salary. I'm donating part of my constituency MP salary to local organisations, but the extra bit that comes with being prime minister, I'm making the same commitment
"I wouldn't want to ask anybody to do anything that I'm not prepared to do.
"I want to lead from the front. This issue matters massively to me. I don't want to live in a country where walking past people sleeping rough just becomes commonplace and we almost say: 'Well, that's it, there's nothing we can do.
"There are things that we can do. We proved it in the pandemic. We should do it again now and it should just be what we do all the time."
Big Issue founder praises gesture
Big Issue founder Lord John Bird said: "The Prime Minister is leading by example by donating 15% of his salary to the fight against homelessness.
"This gesture reminds us that homelessness is all our problem and everyone will need to put their shoulder to the wheel to eradicate it.
"Today he's backed his ambition with personal and political action, and I look forward to working with him to make this ambition a reality."
