SerpApi.Org
Andy Burnham entered Downing St promising to build a “new politics”. Yet 24 hours later, it is business as usual in the Labour Party.
Mr Burnham signalled what he really meant when he called for an end to “factionalism” by purging from the Cabinet those MPs most loyal to Sir Keir Starmer. Quite how that squares with Mr Burnham’s pledge to restore “stability” is unclear.
The dangers inherent in substituting one partisan cohort for another were soon apparent. Mr Burnham began his first day in office by announcing a temporary cut to the rate of VAT on electricity bill. But within hours, the policy had unravelled due in no small part to the intervention of the just sacked Darren Jones, who pointed out that the policy was completely unfunded.
Internal party rows are nothing new, but it is striking to see them engulf a government so publicly, so early and on such a paltry proposal.
The VAT cut is welcome, but only if it can be properly funded from spending cuts, rather than with yet more tax rises or borrowing. Even then, the savings for an average household amount to less than the cost of a cup of tea each week.
Like many who have come before him, Mr Burnham has long coveted high office but seems to have little idea of what precisely to do with it. Thus far the new Prime Minister’s “plan” for government amounts to little more than cheap political gimmicks and rehashing failed ideas.
Ending homelessness is a laudable goal announced by Mr Burnham. But it is hardly new and won’t turn around the country’s fortunes. It has been pledged on eight previous occasions since 1990 – including by Sir Keir, whose £3.5bn plan appears to have made little difference. Wealth taxes and rent controls are reportedly being considered, along with yet another costly round of devolution. All have been tried, all have failed.
The country has little room for error. Mr Burnham has inherited a spluttering economy addicted to debt, rampant youth unemployment and monstrous levels of welfare dependency.
Rather than rowing over the government equivalent of small change, he should focus on boosting economic growth by reforming welfare, scrapping unfair taxes on enterprise and licencing new oil-drilling in the North Sea.
Only by taking on his party’s worst instincts will Mr Burnham show that his “new politics” is anything other than empty rhetoric.
