Andy Burnham has used a marathon broadcast round to “knock dead” a rumour he is considering an early general election, as he heads to Liverpool to front the Labour Party’s annual conference for the first time as Prime Minister.
The PM will travel to Merseyside alongside party delegates and activists for the event, which begins at the weekend and will end on Wednesday.
Conference guide message
Writing in this year’s conference guide, Mr Burnham described attending the conference as his party’s leader as “a huge honour”.
He added: “I joined our party when I was 15 for the same reason so many of you did – to help change our communities and to build a better, fairer country.
“And that is the focus of this Labour Government.
“For too long, politics has not been working for people across Britain. We need to do better – and we will.”
Election speculation dismissed
Burnham became Prime Minister in July this year, having taken a seat on the House of Commons’ green benches after the Makerfield by-election the previous month.
Before heading to Liverpool, he took questions from more than two dozen broadcasters and when asked about media reports in recent days he was weighing up the prospect of an election as early as next year, Mr Burnham replied: “All of this speculation on an early election, I can knock that dead.”
Speaking to ITV Calendar, he said the next election “will be” in 2029.
He elsewhere told BBC West: “I’m focused on the job as Prime Minister – doing what I said I would do.
“I will lay out a big speech in Liverpool next week, which will say further about the direction I want to take the country in the coming period.
“The focus is on that: helping people with the cost of living, helping businesses with the costs of running a business.
“These have got to be the priorities right now rather than throwing the country into a backward-looking process where we are arguing again amongst ourselves.
“The time has come, draw a line, get the country looking forward, pulling together, people feeling a bit of hope in their lives again, that’s what I’m trying to do and I hope to take it further in the coming period rather than putting people back into an election cycle.”
Water sector reform hints
Mr Burnham also hinted water sector reform would be high on his conference agenda.
In a pre-conference teaser, he told ITV West Country: “What we need to do is start to lay out a programme for reform – and we will.
“And we can expect to hear an answer to that (at the) conference.”
The Prime Minister was asked about South West Water, which charity Friends of the Earth this year named “top of the flops” for having the highest total duration of pollution events since 2024, averaging annually at 574,323 hours.
He said he was “well aware of the strength of feeling in the region” and continued: “It was a difficult summer for people in relation to water supply.”
Speaking to BBC South, he said ministers were “looking at all of the options” to rescue another water supplier – Thames Water – which has a debt mountain of around £20 billion.
