Within hours of Andy Burnham’s first full day in office, a former senior ally of Keir Starmer publicly attacked the new prime minister’s flagship policy – warning the VAT cut on electricity bills is unfunded and will need a budget explanation.
Burnham, who took over after Starmer left Downing Street to sip a pint at the Grafton pub in Kentish Town, had promised to cut VAT from household electricity bills from 1 October. But Darren Jones, who until Monday night was Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister under Starmer, posted on X: “Good news that VAT will be cut on electricity bills. It’s a simple way for families to save a few quid, and to mechanically help to keep inflation that little bit lower. But the DigitalID program was unfunded. The government will have to set out how it will pay for its new policies at the budget.”
“Darren Jones says Burnham's VAT cut is unfunded, as Badenoch prepares to demand no tax rises.”
The sting was sharp. Jones had previously been an advocate of the Digital ID card policy, but the Office for Budget Responsibility’s Economic and Fiscal Outlook from November notes that “the cost of digital ID cards, for which no specific funding has been identified”, and refers to “the risks around the implementation of digital ID cards for which no explicit provision has been made for its £0.6bn annual cost”. Now Burnham must explain how he will pay for his own plans.
The criticism comes as Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch prepares to urge Burnham to rule out tax rises to pay for what she calls a “spending spree”. She will set out her response to his first days in office in a speech in central London.
Burnham, meanwhile, appears determined to project a different image from his predecessor. In an interview with one reporter at a Somerset bus depot, where he was announcing a new £2 bus fare cap, the former Mayor of Manchester stuck around after filming to keep chatting. Unlike Starmer, who treated every interview “like a tightrope”, Burnham was “more present”, answering questions on integrating public transport without missing a beat. His wife says he told her he wanted to be an MP on the first night they met.
At lunchtime, Burnham gathered his new cabinet for the first time, after a nocturnal reshuffle that saw Wes Streeting appointed defence secretary. Burnham had earlier urged an end to “factionalism” within Labour. With Jones’s salvo and Badenoch waiting, he must prove he can fund his promises without breaking the party’s fragile unity.