We're two weeks into Andy Burnham’s reign, and it’s all starting to feel quite familiar.
The accent’s changed and he’s doing more TikToks.
But when you boil it all down, we’ve ended up with another Prime Minister who makes announcements without having a plan — a more likeable version of Keir Starmer.
I don’t doubt that Burnham cares passionately about the stuff he’s saying.
He’s personable and eager to make people happy.
After Starmer, a Prime Minister who smiles a bit more feels like a constitutional innovation. But a smile is not an actual plan.
Even as Mayor of Manchester, Burnham has already demonstrated a habit of telling people what they want to hear in the moment.
He told voters he’d try and get Britain back into the EU. But he abandoned that pledge when people started complaining.
He told the women upset about changes to the state pension age — the WASPI women — that he’d pay them compensation. Then changed his mind when he saw the cost.
He even promised voters that he would serve his full term as mayor. But halfway through it, he hot-footed back to Westminster to become Prime Minister.
We’re now seeing this same pattern with the announcements he is making from Downing Street. Feel-good giveaways sold with a smile, but no real plan behind them.
Take his energy announcement. Bringing down bills is the right thing to do. The Conservatives have said we should scrap VAT on household energy bills. The difference is that we found the money, Burnham has not.
The numbers just don’t stack up. Where I’ve said we need to scrap green levies to bring down bills permanently, Burnham’s proposal takes about £40 off your bills, and only for six months.
The headline sounds generous. The small print is rather less impressive.
Britain is now at a crossroads between the future Andy Burnham is planning, which takes Britain back to the 1970s: more mayors, more nationalisation and more government.
And a future that the Conservatives are preparing for, based on an optimistic vision grounded in reality.
I believe Britain’s central problem is that our economy is not growing, and more government cannot create growth.
Only businesses can create growth. And when I say business, I do not mean only large corporations or city slickers in suits.
I mean the landlord of a pub who takes on an apprentice. I mean the person who mortgages their home to open a small company and employ their first member of staff.
I mean the farmers who put seeds in the ground and produce the food we eat.
I mean builders who take an empty site and turn it into a home or an office.
I mean manufacturers who make things, and service companies that make everybody’s lives easier.
These are the people who create growth. Politicians do not.
I’m an engineer. Engineering teaches you that simply saying something out loud doesn’t make it real.
You can’t talk a bridge into existence. You need proper calculations, sound materials and a serious plan. Otherwise, the bridge falls down.
Politics should work in much the same way. You can’t paint a pretty picture of the future, announce that the problem is solved then hope reality falls into line.
Burnham is more interested in redistributing money than in making it.
He wants to cut the existing cake into different slices, when Britain’s real problem is that the cake keeps shrinking.
We need to create more wealth and earn a larger national income, not spend our time redistributing less of what little we have.
His “Number 10 North” idea is a perfect case study. Burnham wants to take some of the status attached to 10 Downing Street and relocate it to Manchester.
But redistributing the “Number 10” label does not create a job, open a factory or raise anybody’s wages. It’s redistributing status instead of creating value.
When Burnham discovers that redistribution alone cannot pay for everything he has promised, he will do what Labour always does. He will raise taxes.
He will say that the money will come only from “the wealthy”.
But under Labour, “the wealthy” has a habit of meaning anyone who is not on benefits.
It’s why I say they are no longer the Labour Party, they are the Welfare Party.
The bill always falls on people like Sun readers — striving to pay their mortgages, run their businesses and support their families.
Britain cannot afford another government that treats higher taxes as an alternative to economic growth.
What we need is an economic revolution, and I have the plans to deliver it.
The Conservatives will cut welfare and use the savings to cut taxes and fund defence. We’ll scrap business rates for most of our high street and abolish Stamp Duty on people’s homes.
We’ll bring down energy bills and boost manufacturing by scrapping the carbon tax and backing new drilling in the North Sea.
I’m going to champion the small businesses, family firms, major employers and investors who take risks, create jobs, support communities and get Britain working.
Burnham’s problem is that he’s a people pleaser. He wants to solve the cost-of-living crisis, create a new system of social care, spend more on defence and keep every section of the Labour Party happy.
But government cannot do everything. A serious plan must say not only what ministers want to do, but what they are prepared not to do.
We need a Prime Minister who understands how wealth is created, who backs the people who build businesses and prepares the country for the technological and security challenges ahead.
That’s what I am doing.
Burnham is a blast from the past, Starmerism with a smile. Britain deserves better than both.
