SerpApi.Org
Within hours of taking over as Prime Minister, Andy Burnham began to construct a Cabinet to oversee what he called “a circuit breaker” with the past 40 years of policy-making.
A flurry of announcements is expected in the coming days. But the Commons is not sitting to question the new premier or his ministers in yet another breach of constitutional proprieties from a man who engineered his own elevation during the six-week summer recess. He should recall parliament next week to seek the endorsement of MPs.
His first announcement was to end rough sleeping, reckoned to be the eighth such initiative since 1990. Mr Burnham pioneered a similar scheme in Manchester, where he was mayor, but it failed to reach the targets set. It is odd to begin his premiership with a policy aimed at so few people, however laudable the ambition. Furthermore, the London mayor Sadiq Khan has already launched a similar move in the capital.
Mr Burnham said there would also be immediate financial help for people on lower incomes, possibly by ending the freeze on tax thresholds, though this would need to be confirmed in a Budget and require legislation.
A rent freeze is also in the offing, along with the possible revival of a “death tax” to pay for social care, something proposed by Mr Burnham when he was in Gordon Brown’s government 16 years ago. Within a few weeks we are to see a 10-year plan for government that would reflect his belief in the transformative power of the state.
His first major appointment was to install John Healey in the Treasury as Chancellor. He resigned as defence secretary just five weeks ago when Rachel Reeves, who has left the Government, would not fund promised military commitments. Mr Healey called the Treasury a “dead hand on dynamic government”. So is he now ready to fill the £5bn budget gap and might that signal to the markets that the Government’s so-called ironclad fiscal rules are not set in stone?
His elevation was a surprise but he spent five years as a Treasury minister under Tony Blair and helps bring the experience that Mr Burnham lacks to the Cabinet table.
Louise Haigh, a close ally and another critic of the Treasury, has been given a senior role as First Minister of State. She previously resigned as transport secretary after a past conviction for fraud was disclosed and will be tasked with driving Mr Burnham’s policies through.
Ed Miliband becomes Foreign Secretary, which will be seen as compensation for not getting the Treasury as his Left-wing supporters wanted but which would have caused consternation in the City. It will also take him away from the Energy Department and could make the net zero policy easier to water down without his zealous oversight. Mr Burnham has indicated he wants to grant licences for some new drilling in the North Sea, something Mr Miliband has opposed.
Shabana Mahmood remains at the Home Office, which is a sign that Mr Burnham retains confidence in her robust approach to immigration despite opposition within the party. The party’s Left is likely to view some of these appointments with alarm since they expected the new Prime Minister to be on their side.
Mr Burnham removed many of Sir Keir’s loyalist followers. Out went Lord Hermer, the Attorney General, perhaps signalling a less legalistic approach from the new government and an end to the Chagos Islands farce given the new premier’s emphasis on domestic policies.
Out, too, went David Lammy, the deputy prime minister, and with him hopefully his plans to end jury trials.
Mr Burnham has promised a “breathing space” for the country from cost of living pressures even as the continuing Iran crisis looks certain to increase prices especially of energy and food. He wants the biggest programme of council house building since the war, the “reindustrialisation” of Britain and the renationalisation of utilities like water. Where the money will come from for all of this is unclear.
So far, what we have witnessed is politics by performance, plenty of words and promised activity that will soon collide with the economic realities that stymied his predecessors. Tax cuts or spending rises will need offsetting by cuts elsewhere if the fiscal rules are to be retained as Mr Burnham has promised.
As he returned from Buckingham Palace, he tried to show his new style by dispensing with the Downing Street lectern that has traditionally accompanied this ritual and delivered his speech without notes, noticeably declining to mention his predecessor or thank him for his service. There was no mention of foreign policy or Britain’s place in the world.
This evinces the parochialism that led him to become mayor of Manchester in 2017. He is about to find out that running a city is not the same as governing a country.
