Conservative leader asks PM to rule out autumn tax rises and widen focus beyond bus fares and energy VAT
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch on Thursday accused Prime Minister Andy Burnham of governing like he is still the mayor of Greater Manchester, calling his first wave of policies a “spending spree” and demanding he rule out tax increases in the autumn Budget.
The speech in London marks Badenoch’s first major intervention since Burnham became prime minister on Monday, and it signals the opposition’s line of attack: that a premier shaped by nearly a decade in city-region government is thinking too small for national office while leaving taxpayers exposed. MSI previously reported that Badenoch warned the incoming prime minister he would face a “rude awakening” in office.
Burnham, who became prime minister on Monday after serving as mayor of Greater Manchester, has used his first days in office to announce measures aimed at easing living costs. These include restoring a £2 cap on bus fares in England, cutting VAT on household electricity bills from October, reducing business rates for pubs and live music venues, and finding more accommodation for rough sleepers. The interventions are projected to cost roughly £1.8 billion in total.
The government says the plans have been properly accounted for, financed through a combination of savings, the reallocation of money within existing budgets, and future tax increases on what it calls “anti-social businesses.”
But Badenoch said Burnham had failed to explain where his savings would come from and needed to rule out wider tax rises. “Every day, Andy Burnham seems to float a new, expensive idea,” she said. “We have seen this movie before. Tax rises are coming.”
She also argued that the prime minister needed to “lift his sights to broader things,” calling for plans to fund defence spending and lower business energy costs. “Andy Burnham’s ambitions for Britain are too small,” Badenoch said.
Badenoch drew a sharp distinction between running a city-region and running the country. “When you are mayor of Manchester, you are handed a big pot of someone else’s money, and you decide where to spend it,” she said. “I’m sure this is great fun. It can make you very popular. But it is not the same as being prime minister.”
She added: “Andy Burnham needs to do better. He is behaving like he’s still the mayor of Manchester. He is now the prime minister of the United Kingdom, he needs to start acting like it.”
The Greater Manchester mayoralty, created under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, carries responsibilities in transport, planning, skills, and economic development. Most of its budget comes from central government, and the mayor’s taxation powers are fairly limited.
Burnham has cited Greater Manchester’s bus operating model — in which private firms bid to run services franchised by the local transport authority — as a possible template for regulating the water and energy sectors. As mayor, he maintained a £2 bus fare cap after the previous government raised the England-wide limit to £3 at the start of last year.
Burnham told his newly assembled cabinet on Tuesday that “we need to be a cost of living government,” billing his policy announcements as a first step to give people “breathing space” and promising further support when wider tax and spending decisions are made. He has also pledged to unveil a 10-year economic plan and has signaled support for giving city-regions more control over housing and transport.
The Liberal Democrats said Burnham’s policies would not deliver growth, but added that Badenoch’s criticism was “a bit rich” given “the Conservatives’ legacy of record high taxes, low-growth and spaffing taxpayers’ money up the wall.”
A Labour spokesperson defended Burnham’s announcements, saying the prime minister was “bringing back hope after Kemi Badenoch’s Tory Party nearly broke Britain.”