Andy Burnham is set to take over as the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Mr Burnham, a former minister in the Blair and Brown governments and, until recently, the mayor of Greater Manchester, enters Downing Street having given a broad sketch of his policy agenda.
However, his ideas have not been tested widely in public because the Makerfield MP has given only a handful of media interviews since winning a by-election in June, and has not seen his plans debated in an open Labour leadership contest.
Here the Press Association looks at what we might expect from a Burnham premiership.
Devolution and Regional Empowerment
Mr Burnham has spoken about pushing powers to local leaders outside Westminster. This could include giving town halls further control over tax-raising powers. The aim is to help areas build transport links and housing, create jobs and take charge of their own prosperity.
The incoming PM has also said he will create “No 10 North”, an outpost of 10 Downing Street based in Manchester, which will serve as the “nerve centre” through which to deliver priorities, including reindustrialisation and redistributing power across the UK. He has also spoken about adopting something like Germany’s Basic Law, which aims to ensure equal living conditions between different regions of the country. It is regarded as a key plank in reunifying East and West Germany after the Cold War.
Tax Policy: Sticking to Manifesto with Some Flexibility
Mr Burnham has said he plans to stick to Labour’s 2024 manifesto when it comes to taxes. This means he does not plan to raise income tax, VAT or national insurance contributions for individuals.
However, he has suggested there is “some room” for movement on taxes within the manifesto. He has pledged to overhaul business rates, including higher taxes on out-of-town warehouses for online giants such as Amazon, to help pay for cuts to rates for hospitality businesses.
Welfare and Work: Triple Lock Maintained, Disability Benefits Under Review
The triple lock, which raises the state pension each year by the highest of inflation, average wage growth or 2.5%, will not be scrapped, Mr Burnham has said. He faces the same problems with welfare that Sir Keir Starmer tried to grasp: a growing number of people out of work claiming sickness benefits, and a Labour Party that has resisted attempts to overhaul the system for fear of the impact on people with disabilities.
He will be in office when the final recommendations of the Timms review into disability benefits are published. The interim report said personal independence payment “is no longer fit for purpose”.
Elsewhere, Mr Burnham has spoken of creating “parity” between technical training and university education so that young people can choose the career path right for them. Mr Burnham wants to reindustrialise parts of the country hit hard by the loss of heavy industry, in order to create jobs.
Foreign Affairs: Focus on Domestic Issues, Support for Ukraine
Mr Burnham’s policy agenda has so far been largely domestically focused and he has signalled he does not plan to spend as much time on the international stage as his predecessor, Sir Keir. However, he has hinted at how he will deal with some of the major international issues facing the world.
Britain’s support for Ukraine “will not waver”, he has said. Mr Burnham has also backed further sanctions against Israeli figures involved in settler violence, and he apologised for Labour’s initial response to the country’s actions in Gaza, saying the party must “do better”. On Europe, he has spoken of forging closer ties with the EU, with further co-operation on migration among his aims.
Defence: Rebuilding Hard Power with Increased Spending
Mr Burnham has said he wants to rebuild Britain’s “hard power” in an article for The Times. He is reported to have accepted that the defence investment plan, which caused arguments at the heart of Government over the amount of funding for future-proofing the armed forces, is “settled”. He has pledged to focus investment on British defence firms and reduce foreign dependency, as part of the commitment to increase defence spending to 3.5% of gross domestic product by 2035.
Migration: Net Migration Must Fall Further
Mr Burnham said during the Makerfield by-election that net migration into the UK needs to “fall further” than it has. On Monday, he voted in favour of Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s asylum reforms that aim to cut the number of small boat crossings and instead direct people to alternative “safe and legal routes”.
It confirms his backing for the thrust of her controversial reforms, although his view on plans to double the time it takes to gain indefinite leave to remain is unclear. Mr Burnham has mulled over the possibility of keeping Ms Mahmood as Home Secretary, even though some Labour MPs have warned him against this.
Social Care: Universal System Aspirations
The PM-to-be has called in the past for social care to be a more universal system, akin to the NHS. He led plans to establish a National Care Service when he was health secretary in 2010, but the idea never got off the ground under successive governments. He has suggested he would bring forward to the end of this year the review of funding, commissioned by Sir Keir’s Government and not due to report until 2028.
Environment and Energy: Public Ownership and Net Zero Opportunities
Mr Burnham has spoken of wanting to see “greater public control” of water and energy companies, and suggested he favoured direct public ownership in the case of the debt-laden Thames Water. He has championed using the push for net zero as an opportunity to reindustrialise areas of the country which lost out with the end of heavy industry.
The soon-to-be Labour leader is also mulling whether to grant approval to two oil and gas projects in the North Sea off Scotland – Rosebank and Jackdaw – after signalling he is open-minded about drilling to bring down costs.
Housing: Council House Building Programme
The prospective Prime Minister has said No 10 North would oversee “the biggest council house-building programme this country has seen since the Second World War”, using vacant public land to reduce costs. The challenge is huge, with the current Government’s target of building 1.5 million new homes by 2029 not on track.
Mr Burnham has also said he would focus on higher-density development in existing towns, to both reinvigorate high streets and protect green spaces. He has in the past indicated he wanted to change how property and land are taxed.
Electoral Reform: Proportional Representation Push
Mr Burnham has frequently expressed support for overhauling the voting system to make it more proportional. Last week, he said he would “seek to persuade” Labour to promise in its next election manifesto to replace the UK’s first-past-the-post system with a form of proportional representation.
