EXCLUSIVE: The new Prime Minister told the Mirror helping hard-pressed households would be his top priority in office, and signalled he could do more to bring down utility bills and rail fares
Andy Burnham has said people struggling to take the kids out, to go to the pub, or to go on holiday drive his decisions as he promised more cost of living help is on the way.
In an interview with the Sunday Mirror, the new Prime Minister said helping hard-pressed households would be his top priority in office, and signalled he could do more to bring down utility bills and rail fares.
After a whirlwind two weeks in Downing Street, Mr Burnham said the concerns of voters on the doorstep were ringing in his ears as he gets down to the business of governing.
Asked who he had in mind when he was making decisions, he said: “People on whose doors I was knocking only about five, six weeks ago… They did get over to me how tough life was. Can’t go for drink anymore. Can’t take the kids out. Not having a holiday this year.
“I heard those type of things being said throughout the campaign, and those comments were still ringing in my ears as I arrived in Downing Street.”
Mr Burnham used his first days in Downing Street to roll out a rapid-fire list of cost of living announcements. VAT will be slashed from electricity bills from October, bus fares will be capped at £2 and pubs, social clubs and live music venues will get a 20% cut to business rates from April.
He also took aim at some of the most intractable issues gripping the country – from rough sleeping to social care and the crisis of young people not in work, education or training.
But despite his packed in-tray, the cost of living remains at the top of his agenda. “It’s about looking across the piece,” he said. “Not giving people false promises, but being honest with them and saying, “Well, I’ll do whatever I can in all of these different areas just to take a little bit of pressure down”.
He went on: “I think rail fares are too high, outrageously so in some instances. So that’s something that’s in my sights.
“I mentioned VAT and electricity bills. It’s a short-term measure at this moment, but let’s see where we can go with that.
“Water is an issue as well, where I think the public pay high bills and they don’t see that money then going into infrastructure. There’s another area that needs reform.”
But the PM’s hopes of offering breathing space to struggling families risk being plunged into jeopardy by global turmoil.
The war in Iran triggered a spike in wholesale energy costs, sending household energy bills rocketing by 13% for millions of people in Britain at the start of July. The typical household that pays by direct debit saw the price cap increase from £1,641 to £1,862 a year.
Mr Burnham’s Government will need to decide whether to intervene to help consumers this winter, when the price cap is expected to rise again and temperatures drop.
The PM said the situation was being monitored, and said he had been urged to look at standing charges – a flat daily fee like a telephone line rental – which are added to bills regardless of how much energy is used.
He said: “We’ll keep monitoring that situation and make sure we’re doing everything that we can do. People have raised issues like the standing charges on bills, and they kind of pushed me to go further on that.
“So I’ll take a look at that issue, alongside other issues and other things that we might be able to do to help people with the cost of living.
“It remains a very tough time for people, and I know the main thing people would like me to do if I can do it is to ease that pressure a little bit.”
Part of his pitch is to make Britain fairer – in terms of opportunity, geography, and living standards. He said: “I think too often the country’s been run for some people, not all people. I definitely am somebody who wants to change that.”
Creating No10 North will be one of the defining changes, he said, ensuring “a feeling in all places that they are on the rise if you like, not going backwards”.
He added: “I’m serious when I talk about giving Britain hope back. We haven’t had enough to feel hopeful about recently.” Asked if Britain could get it’s mojo back, he joked: “Yeah, that’s it. I’ll try.”
But the other pressures weighing on the PM were brought home as he spoke to the Sunday Mirror in Barrow-in-Furness, where four new Dreadnought-class submarines are being built. The cutting-edge vessels will enter service in the 2030s, armed with deadly Trident missiles that act as Britain’s nuclear deterrent.
The PM said the thing that had struck him most since entering No10 was “the fragility” of the global situation. He said: “Things can change very quickly, it feels, in the times in which we’re living, and because of that, I think Britain really does need to regain its stability to be in a world like this, and drifting is not a good place to be.”
As the sixth PM in 10 years, Mr Burnham said he was conscious that British politics hasn’t been working. He said: “It’s too much about point scoring and politicians doing what they like doing, rather than what the public want them to do. [Changing] that’s a really important way of regaining stability.
“The unpredictability, the volatility, the fragility of the world right now is the thing [that surprised him most]. I knew it was like that, but obviously, when you’re in the position that I’m in, you really feel that, and I’ve got to do whatever I can to build some stability back into Britain.”
But he added: “I do feel hopeful. I love this country, every facet of it, and I do feel hopeful about it because I talked about the fragility of the world, but you come into this role, and you just see the amazing strengths we’ve still got here.”
Despite being Prime Minister, Mr Burnham wants to stick to his style of politics – picking up policy ideas from voters in shops, on the bus, and in the pub.
“That’s the way I’ve always done my politics, and I don’t want it to change,” he said. Just this week, he went to the theatre with his family and was approached by people. “I love that,” he said.
He joked that he was infuriating his security by stopping to talk to people – and said he was fighting a “one-man campaign” to stay in his season ticket seat at Hill Dickinson stadium to watch Everton.
He said: “I’m not really winning it right now, but I’m still fighting the fight. But again, that’s a chance for people just to say, ‘you know what, you should do this, or you said this last week, don’t say that.’
“I’ve always used that feedback as a politician to get my focus where I think people want it to be.”