Prime Minister Andy Burnham will tell the Labour Party conference that his plan can “turn Britain around”, pledging to tackle issues politicians “usually avoid” in his first leader's speech. Amid mounting speculation that the pensions triple lock could be reformed to fund social care, he is expected to set out a new course for a “Britain where people feel the country has their back again”.
Plans for social care and public utilities
Mr Burnham will flesh out his plans for free social care in England, promise measures on youth unemployment and public control of utilities, and pledge to hold an “honest conversation” about tough issues. Echoing the Liverpool conference's slogan of “Hope again”, he will tell party members that “hope comes from honesty and from saying the things politicians usually avoid”.
He will also announce a new publicly-owned “Great British Grid” in a bid to bring UK energy costs down in line with European nations within a decade. The Prime Minister will say: “We can't carry on as we are. Politics-as-usual has taken Britain backwards. More of the same isn't good enough and isn't going to get us where we need to be.”
Criticism of centralised power
He will revisit the themes of his first speeches in office, criticising the centralisation of power in the hands of “vested interests” and promising a break from the “flawed thinking of the last 40 years”. He said he wants a UK with “more control of the basics so that we can make it more functional again”.
Social care is likely to feature prominently in the speech, with the Prime Minister suggesting on Monday he would set out more detail of his plans to fund reform of the system. Mr Burnham has previously said he intends to spend what “political capital” he has on reforming social care, an issue he tried to address as health secretary under Gordon Brown. Those proposals, which would have seen care funded by a levy on estates, were condemned by opponents as a “death tax” and foundered after Labour's defeat in the 2010 election.
Triple lock speculation and political reaction
Change will not come before the next election, with Baroness Louise Casey still to publish the findings of her review of social care and Mr Burnham suggesting he would put his proposals to the public in Labour's next manifesto. Ministers have refused to confirm Labour's commitment to the triple lock – which guarantees that pensions will rise in line with inflation, 2.5% or average earnings, whichever is the largest increase – will be in that manifesto, fuelling speculation that a change to a less generous system could be used to partly fund free social care for adults in England.
Chancellor John Healey told the BBC: “The manifesto will be the manifesto at the time, I'm not going to do that now, but I think what people will see from the Prime Minister is not just a vision for the future, but an argument about why we must act.”
Mr Burnham will promise “a more serious prospectus for Britain than people have been offered in a generation” and say: “I accept people will not agree with every part of it, but I believe it can turn Britain around.” He will admit that he initially wanted to “give the usual tub-thumping conference speech” but that “the patriot in me tells me something very different is needed”. He will say “everyone wants less drift and more direction” and that he will “answer that call”.
Energy grid plans and criticism
In his conference speech, Mr Burnham will set out plans to make it easier to get connections to the energy grid, addressing one of the issues blamed for slowing the pace of economic growth and pushing up costs. GB Grid – the new body being set up under the Great British Energy umbrella – will be the first publicly-owned player in electricity networks since privatisation under Margaret Thatcher. The move will give “more public control” to help reform the “broken energy market,” he will say.
Conservative Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake said hope was “not a strategy”. He said: “If Andy Burnham wants to be honest with the British people, he must admit that Labour's tax rises have crushed businesses, killed jobs and hammered family finances — all so Labour can give more handouts to benefits street. Tomorrow Andy Burnham has the chance to show whether he's got the backbone to bring the welfare bill down and stand up to his welfare obsessed MPs. Failure to do so will prove he's just a people pleaser who can't take decisions in the national interest, and that Labour really are the welfare party.”
Reform UK's Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick said: “It's frankly outrageous that Burnham is considering scrapping the triple lock when we're wasting tens of billions of pounds on nonsense. Instead he should slash the benefits bill, foreign aid and net zero subsidies. It's only fair that we have the backs of those who have worked hard their entire lives.”
