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With less than a week until Sir Keir Starmer officially leaves No 10, Andy Burnham is effectively prime minister in all but name. The Makerfield MP is expected to take office on Monday, having secured the backing of over 300 Labour MPs, according to The Independent.
His tenure in No 10 has been highly anticipated for many months, with his path to Downing Street having been without obstacles since his by-election win last month. During his campaign trail and since returning to parliament, the prime-minister-in-waiting has delivered a number of speeches laying out his policy intentions.
Here are some of his key policies:
DevolutionAndy Burnham has long been a champion of devolution, having called for it to go further repeatedly during his time as mayor of Greater Manchester. In his first major speech after returning to parliament, he said he will lead a decade-long plan to transform Britain by transferring power out of Whitehall and giving regions the ability to control essential utilities, transport and housing.
His flagship proposal was the creation of an outpost of Downing Street based in Manchester, dubbed ‘No 10 in the North’, which he said would serve as the “nerve centre” through which to deliver priorities including reindustrialisation and regeneration.
The prospective prime minister promised to set a “new direction” for the UK, the outpost driving his plans to rewire the British state. He said proposals would bring about the “biggest rebalancing of power our country has seen”, Mr Burnham said as he promised to overcome Whitehall’s resistance to change.
TaxesIn an interview earlier this month, Mr Burnham laid out how he may approach taxation once in power, suggesting there is “some room” in the Labour manifesto for “movement on tax”. The Makerfield MP signalled he may look at hiking business rates on the giant warehouses, while lifting high street shops and pubs out of having to pay the business rates.
He signalled that he will introduce a so-called “Amazon tax” with a massive reform of business rates in a bid to save Britain’s high streets. But he also said that he plans to stick to Labour’s 2024 election manifesto promises of not raising income tax, VAT or national insurance personal contributions. There have also been growing calls for a wealth tax from left-wing Labour MPs, while polling conducted earlier this year revealed that 91 per cent of party members think the government should tax the rich more.
One way to do this would be an increase in capital gains tax (CGT), which one of Mr Burnham’s top allies has called for. The proposal would mean CGT could be taxed at a 45 per cent rate, rather than the 18 to 24 per cent rate currently in place. Andy Burnham has also previously suggested that council tax and stamp duty could be replaced, and has instead advocated for a land value tax.
This could see property be taxed on its market rental value.
In 2023, Mr Burnham also supported the abolition of inheritance tax in favour of a “national care levy” everyone would pay to contribute to a national care service, but said “obviously the wealthiest would pay the most”.
Mr Burnham previously said he would like the UK to rejoin the EU within his lifetime. But since standing to become an MP, he said he will not try to return the UK to the EU, arguing that the country would be stuck in a “permanent rut if we’re just constantly arguing”.
However, the former Manchester mayor has said that he wants to work more closely with Europe on defence, writing in The Times: “I want to consolidate the progress made on the existing UK-EU negotiations and make further progress quickly, including by strengthening our co-operation on illegal migration, economic security and the broader resilience of our societies to external threats – from terrorism to AI-driven disinformation.”
