Andy Burnham has been likened to the tyrannical 'Sheriff of Nottingham' after he boasted of hitting Manchester with the highest tax of any regional mayor. Reform UK accused the Left-wing mayor of being 'proud of raising taxes' after he bragged that his mayoral tax is 'significantly higher than anyone else's'.
The revelation will spark fears that Mr Burnham will hike taxes on hardworking Britons if he is successful in his bid to return to Westminster to oust Sir Keir Starmer. On Tuesday the Mayor of Greater Manchester declined to rule out hiking the top rate of income tax to 50p and said a 'debate' was needed about the introduction of a land value tax.
Now Mr Burnham has boasted that 'I have raised taxes in Greater Manchester', adding: 'If you look at my mayoral precept, it's significantly higher than anyone else's.' Elected mayors can raise a so-called mayoral precept - a sum on top of council tax for local services - although most mayors currently do not.
Reform UK's candidate for the Makerfield by-election likened Mr Burnham to the villainous 'Sheriff of Nottingham' from Robin Hood, who subjects his people to unaffordable taxes. 'It reminds me of the Sheriff of Nottingham, being proud of raising taxes,' Robert Kenyon told the Mail. 'His precepts have increased from Wigan taxpayers over his tenure in this job, and we've seen nothing for it. Nothing except yellow buses. The buses have changed colour, that's it, while Manchester got skyscrapers.'
Mr Burnham's mayoral precept has increased from £76 for an average household in 2019 to £154 this year after a 19.4 per cent increase in February. However, the Manchester Mayor defended the tax hikes, telling the New Statesman: 'The way I've done it is I've said to people: 'I will do it for a specific purpose to keep the £2 [bus] fare cap.' So, you know, I think it's about how you do things, isn't it?'
Mr Burnham also complained about Labour's 2024 general election manifesto - which explicitly said 'Labour will not increase taxes on working people' - being too 'restrictive'. He told the Left-wing magazine: 'I look back at the manifesto, and I wouldn't have written it like that myself when it comes to tax. I think it was quite restrictive.' However he said that a new Labour leader would have to stick to those promises without seeking a new mandate, adding: 'The manifesto has to be stuck to. That's important.'
In a wide-ranging interview, Mr Burnham - who is campaigning to win the Makerfield by-election on June 18 on a pledge to 'change Labour' - said he has an 'open mind' on new drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea. Mr Burnham also said he was a 'reluctant Remainer' and suggested he could have stopped Brexit if he had been successful in his bid to be Labour leader in 2015. He told the New Statesman: 'I mean, this is gonna sound too much, and I kind of hesitate to say it, and maybe I shouldn't, but I don't know whether 2016 may have played out differently. I was always a voice inside, saying, look, I'm a Remainer, but we should be telling Cameron and Osborne, they've got to really get some serious changes. Would that have played out slightly differently if I was the sort of…'
He added: 'My other half doesn't give me credit for anything much in politics at all, she's my fiercest - not critic, but, like, challenger - about things, and she thinks it might, yeah. She says, well, maybe it would've been different.' Meanwhile Mr Burnham appears to have ditched a planned call with hedge fund managers, billed as an opportunity to cool concerns about his economic approach. But the call was shelved at the 11th hour, according to the Financial Times. Mr Burnham previously spooked the financial markets by suggesting that the Government should be less 'in hock' to the bond markets.
