Andy Burnham breaks ‘difficult’ finances silence with ‘dangers’ assertion

The Prime Minister has said the first Budget of his premiership will be “challenging” due to the knock-on effects of the Iran war, but pledges no risks to living standards

Andy Burnham has vowed he won’t gamble with people’s living standards at next month’s crucial Budget as the cost of living crisis continues to squeeze households. The Prime Minister, who returned to duties today following his father’s death, acknowledged the first Budget of his tenure would prove “challenging” due to the ripple effects of the Iran conflict.

However, he maintained the UK economy was displaying signs of “resilience across the board” – despite the latest official data on Wednesday revealing a rise in inflation.

Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures showed that inflation climbed to a five-month peak of 3.1% last month as escalating fuel costs and airfares drove up living expenses.

This comes as trade unions press Chancellor John Healey to act more swiftly and decisively on the cost of living to support hard-pressed families nationwide, reports the Mirror.

At this week’s TUC conference in Brighton, the government faced calls to introduce a windfall levy on banks’ massive profits to fund reductions in soaring energy bills. Additional union leaders also reiterated demands for a tax on the wealth of the ultra-rich while slashing bills for struggling households.

Speaking to journalists ahead of the October 28 Budget, the PM said: “It is going to be challenging, because the picture around the world is challenging, particularly the situation in the Middle East, and we will look carefully at all those things.

“We won’t take risks with people’s living standards or with the economy as a whole, so we will take it all into account.

“It’s why we wanted to do an earlier Budget, we didn’t want to leave a long period of speculation, I think that’s been shown now to be the right decision and it will mean taking whatever action we can to help people while also making sure we apply the highest degree of prudence to the running of the economy.”

However, during a visit to McLaren’s factory in Woking, the Prime Minister also noted that Britain is not alone in grappling with the pressures of inflation. He stated: “To the extent to which we’ve got inflationary pressure it’s driven by the situation in the Middle East, and of course that is also causing problems on markets around the world, so Britain is not alone, everyone is feeling those pressures.

“But it does mean the Chancellor and I will take those issues fully into account as we approach the Budget next month.

“With inflation where it is, and it is a concern, it’s more important that I do what I can to take the pressure off people from a cost of living point of view, and it’s why VAT will come off electricity bills in a few weeks time, it’s why we’re taking action on bus fares and other things, just to give people that little bit of help, and that will need to continue.

“But there’s a lot of resilience n the British economy, and here today a huge vote of confidence in Britain from McLaren, one of our world class manufacturers, and it’s wonderful to see the investment they have been making here and in Rotherham, and it’s a sign of confidence long-term in the British economy.”

This follows comments from his former adviser Andy Haldane – who previously served as chief economist at the Bank of England – who told LBC News on Tuesday: “The market now suspects that this is a traditional tax-and-spend socialist government with better Tiktok videos.”

However, Mr Burnham rejected the criticism, stating: “That doesn’t tell the story. I mean, we are not that. Already, I have taken difficult decisions in this job in relation to reprioritising Government spending, putting digital ID on hold for instance, so it’s not the case that we aren’t going to take difficult decisions. We will take difficult decisions to make sure the economy remains on track.”