Andy Burnham, the man widely expected to become prime minister later this month, has opened the door to tax changes while insisting he will not break Labour’s core promises on income tax, VAT or national insurance. In his first media interview since announcing his leadership bid, the newly elected Makerfield MP told LBC’s Andrew Marr there was “some room” within the 2024 manifesto for movement on tax – specifically by shifting the burden onto online retail giants.
Burnham proposed increasing business rates on giant warehouses operated by firms such as Amazon, and targeting owners of empty high street properties, to fund a 20% cut in rates for pubs, clubs and music venues. Smaller independent hospitality, leisure and retail companies would also see the threshold for paying business rates raised for the first time since 2017. “I stick by the manifesto and the promises that it made,” Burnham said. “So, let me be absolutely clear about that, but there is some room within that manifesto for movement on tax.”
“Andy Burnham says there is ‘some room’ for tax moves but will keep pledges not to raise VAT, income tax or national insurance.”
The likely next prime minister defended his economic credibility, pointing to what he called “rock solid” finances when he was mayor of Greater Manchester and his previous experience as a Treasury minister under the last Labour government. He insisted he would not be “indisciplined” with the public finances, a statement aimed at calming critics after past remarks in which he argued the UK had “got to get beyond this thing of being in hock to the bond markets”. Some on the left of the party have called for borrowing rules to be relaxed to fund more public spending.
Burnham remains the only candidate in the contest to replace Sir Keir Starmer as Labour leader and is expected to take over as prime minister on 20 July. His first major test will be finding money for defence: Starmer this week announced a £15bn increase but did not spell out where the extra funding would come from. Whoever Burnham chooses to replace Rachel Reeves as chancellor will have to find at least £4.7bn in savings from other departments.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch seized on Burnham’s decision to host an “ask me anything” session on Reddit later on Friday, accusing him of “running away from being asked questions”. “Reddit is easy, he can filter which ones he wants to answer, just look at the easy questions,” she said.
