Burnham to Answer Reddit Questions Amid Leadership Campaign
Andy Burnham, effectively the prime minister-in-waiting as the sole declared candidate to succeed Sir Keir Starmer as Labour leader, will face an online question session on Reddit on Friday afternoon. The session comes after Burnham hinted he would be prepared to raise taxes on out-of-town businesses if he becomes prime minister later this month.
In his first interview since Sir Keir announced his resignation, Burnham told LBC's Tonight with Andrew Marr show that there was room for movement on tax despite pledging to keep Labour's 2024 manifesto commitments not to increase workers' income tax, national insurance or VAT rates.
Policy Scrutiny and Tax Proposals
Despite being on track to enter No 10 on July 20, Burnham has received limited scrutiny over his policy platform. He refused to take questions from journalists after his one major leadership campaign speech and has given only one interview, on Thursday evening with LBC.
In a social media post recorded at Warrington station late Thursday, Burnham said: “People do want a new direction in politics. A new way of doing things. More doing, less arguing. More power put into places like this. I’ll set more details out about that in the coming days.”
On LBC, he elaborated on tax plans: “I stick by the manifesto and the promises that it made. So let me be absolutely clear about that but there is some room within that manifesto for movement on tax. So, if you take business rates, for instance, I believe there is a case for higher business rates on warehouses and the major developments we see on the outskirts of our cities, so that we can cut business rates for pubs, and I’ve proposed a 20% cut and to lift some high street businesses out of business rates altogether.”
He suggested firms that bring a “social benefit” to town centres would benefit from the tax break.
Reassuring Markets and Welfare Plans
To reassure markets, Burnham cited his experience: “I was in the Treasury, I ran the Department of Health, and… it was tight but we had a very healthy set of finances. I’ve run Greater Manchester, the fastest-growing city region in the country, for a decade and you can’t make it the fastest-growing city region in the country without strong business confidence in what you’re doing.”
He ruled out making “crude cuts” to the welfare bill to balance the books. He promised more assistance for young people to get into work, with a greater focus on vocational education, adding: “I will not defend an education system that is overly focused on the university route and does not lay out paths to technical qualifications for our young people.” He added that “if you build more council homes, you can bring down the housing benefit bill.”
Cabinet Decisions and Media Strategy
Burnham said he has not yet decided who will be his chancellor of the exchequer – “I haven’t made those decisions, and deliberately not” – and defended his decision not to take questions after Monday's policy speech: “I didn’t answer questions, and some people criticise me for that, but again, I’m challenging some of the prevailing culture, where it immediately will go into a Westminster obsession.”
