Andy Burnham Has No Plan for Britain
Andy Burnham seems like a nice guy, I am glad he has a sense of humour. He needs it in his job. However, when I look at the plans he’s announced for the country and how they will benefit our constituency of North West Essex, I find myself asking: is that it?
Britain is the fifth-largest economy in the world. We have huge challenges both at home and abroad to solve, and yet our new Prime Minister's big ideas are £2 bus fares and £45 off energy bills when the average bill is nearly £2,000.
Cost-of-living pressures are real, but the problems go far beyond bus fares. Families are struggling. Young people are wondering if they'll ever earn enough to buy a home, businesses are closing, including in Chelmsford and Uttlesford and people are working harder and feeling poorer.
Across North West Essex, businesses are struggling. I have spoken to hairdressers in Saffron Walden, local pubs and aerospace engineering companies, all of whom say they are unable to hire apprentices due to Labour's Jobs Tax. Concerts are being cancelled at local venues because of rising costs and low ticket sales.
Last year I announced the Conservatives would abolish business rates for most of the high street and showed how we'd pay for it. Andy Burnham only wants to cut business rates by 20%, just for pubs and music venues, and hasn't found the money.
Every day he floats a new, expensive idea: a National Care Service costing £18 billion, council housing at 1970s levels costing £13 billion. He was considering raising the personal allowance, then he was against it and then for it again. He doesn't know what he wants to do; he’s thinking out loud, and it's going to cost us all a lot of money.
Andy Burnham needs to rule out tax rises to pay for his spending spree. We saw what happened when Rachel Reeves raised taxes: employers stopped hiring and jobs were lost. He will repeat her mistakes, and he will punish the engineer whose factory never gets built and the family whose bills rise again, all while claiming he's only taxing the rich.
Andy Burnham may be a nice guy. But Britain doesn't need a Prime Minister with small answers to big problems. Britain needs a government that understands the scale of the challenges our country is facing. The Conservatives are the only Party that does
