Andy Burnham says first budget was limited by economic uncertainty
The UK prime minister said he would have liked to go further with this week's measures and blamed the war in Iran for higher borrowing costs.
At a glance
- Andy Burnham said his first budget was not as radical as he wanted, citing economic uncertainty and higher borrowing costs.
- Chancellor John Healey announced a £100 energy bill payment for most households and other relatively inexpensive measures.
- Burnham plans welfare reform after reports by Alan Milburn and Stephen Timms, and faces pressure over defence spending.
UK prime minister Andy Burnham has said his first budget was not as radical as he would have liked, citing economic uncertainty and the war in Iran, which he said had pushed up borrowing costs.
Speaking to ITV on Friday, Burnham said he would have preferred to go further with this week's announcement, including on higher energy support payments.
His chancellor, John Healey, set out a series of relatively inexpensive measures on Wednesday, among them a £100 payment for most households to help with energy bills this winter. The budget drew criticism for not doing enough on defence spending, welfare cuts and support for the cost of living.
'Room for manoeuvre'
Burnham said: “The room for manoeuvre wasn't what I would have hoped it to be. I guess then the question is, you know, radical within what we were able to do.”
He described asking banks to repay help they received about 20 years ago as “quite a big call”, and said a payment to 20 million households was “quite a significant step”.
Asked whether this was the budget he wanted to deliver, he said no prime minister or chancellor would say so, adding that volatility meant “you just can't necessarily deliver the budget that in an ideal world you would want to deliver”.
Welfare and manifesto limits
Burnham said he wanted major changes to the benefits system so that most young people would not have to claim benefits at all. He will spell out welfare reform plans in the coming months after two reports on the system, one by the former minister Alan Milburn and one by the current minister Stephen Timms. He said the changes would not involve “brutal cuts” that would leave people in “absolute crisis”.
“I don't actually want to see anyone in their 20s on benefits,” he said, adding that he accepted some people cannot work because of disability.
Burnham came to office this year promising an end to “40 years of neoliberalism” and sweeping change of the economy, including higher taxes on wealth and nationalisation of major utilities. So far he has made smaller announcements — tax cuts on energy bills, lower bus fares and fines for playing music out loud on phones on public transport — which he and Healey say are meant to give voters “breathing space”.
He said he was constrained by Labour's 2024 manifesto, which ruled out raising income tax, national insurance or VAT, and said he would seek his own mandate in time.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said of the budget: “Most people in the country, listening to that budget, will be thinking to themselves ‘is that it?’.”
Defence pressure
Burnham is also under pressure to spend more on defence, with Tan Dhesi, the Labour chair of the defence select committee, accusing the government of inaction this week. Defence secretary Wes Streeting rejected the criticism on Friday, telling BBC Breakfast he strongly disagreed and that the charge of delaying or “kicking the can down the road” did not stack up against money already going into defence. He hinted at further departmental cuts next year, telling Sky News that, as the budget showed, “there are choices and trade-offs”.
Source: The Guardian World.
Questions and answers
- What did Andy Burnham say about his first budget?
- He said it was not as radical as he would have liked, blaming economic uncertainty and the war in Iran, which he said had pushed up borrowing costs.
- What was in the budget announced by John Healey?
- The chancellor set out relatively inexpensive measures, including a £100 payment for most households to help with energy bills this winter.
- What are Andy Burnham's welfare reform plans?
- He wants major changes so that most people in their 20s do not claim benefits, and will set out plans after reports by Alan Milburn and Stephen Timms.
