In his first statement in the Commons, Andy Burnham said it was time to be blunt about what’s gone wrong, railing against Margaret Thatcher’s legacy of deindustrialisation and privatisation
Andy Burnham has said Britain’s next decade can be better than the last as he promised “much more substantial change” on the big issues facing the country.
In his first speech to MPs, the Prime Minister said he would set aside point scoring to get things done and promised “politics done differently”.
But he said it was time to be blunt about what’s gone wrong, railing against Margaret Thatcher’s legacy of deindustrialisation and privatisation that left communities on their knees.
Mr Burnham said the country had taken a “series of wrong turns” since the 1980s, with failures compounded by Tory austerity and Brexit, which he blamed for a decade of stalled growth and stalled regeneration.
The PM said: “When I stood outside Downing Street six weeks ago, I said Britain needs a circuit breaker.
“After a decade of turbulence, negativity, point scoring, and divisive politics, this is what I have outlined today: A clear, coherent, and credible approach to growth that can unlock a feeling of positivity and possibility in every postcode in Britain.”
He added: “When it comes to the biggest issues facing the country, the economy and the cost of living crisis, people are looking for much more substantial change as promised in our manifesto and that is what I will bring.”
Basic standards must be brought back, he said, to make this country somewhere where no one sleeps rough and communities aren’t blighted by illegal waste tips.
He added: “We can make this next decade better than the last. We can lift the prospects of all our people and places. We can put more power into every postcode. We can let Britain believe again. We can bring back hope.”
Mr Burnham said too many places had been drifting for 40 years, with this decline exposed by desolate high streets.
Tory MPs roared with anger as he laid bare the legacy of the party’s botched delivery of Brexit – but the PM hit back, saying: “Change begins with honesty.”
He added: “Unless we are blunt about what went wrong, we won’t turn things around. Far from taking back control, the combination of these policies took control out of the hands of communities up and down Britain.”
In a statement lasting more than three hours, Mr Burnham said he would hand more power out of Westminster, with an offer of greater devolution across the country.
He said he had heard fears that his plans would mean a “two-tier England” and had tasked No10 North to work on a deal with Cornwall council that he said extended to other parts of the country.
Mr Burnham also branded the water industry a “leaking monument” to failure as he promised to set out plans for stronger public control of essential services in a 10-year plan in the coming months.
Electoral reform could be in Labour’s next manifesto, he suggested, and he also committed to reforms of the “unfair” leasehold system.
He signalled that he could hike defence spending to 3% of GDP by 2030, saying he appointed John Healey as Chancellor because of his views on military spending.
Mr Healey quit as Defence Secretary in July over cash for the armed forces in a hammer blow to Keir Starmer’s tottering premiership.
Mr Burnham also said he would get the welfare bill down the Labour way, by building more council housing to relieve pressure on housing benefits.
He said the education system was failing some young people, and said more could be done to get youngsters into work and to help them with mental health support rather than consigning them to life on benefits.
On foreign affairs, he said his commitment to Ukraine was iron-clad, and he confirmed he would attend the COP 31 climate summit in November.
Pointing to the devastating floods in Nepal, he said: “This is what the climate crisis looks like.
“We have just ourselves experienced what is likely to have been the hottest summer on record. This Government will meet the climate challenge.”
The PM appeared emotional when he spoke of the strain on family carers, an issue he has said is close to his heart after his dad Roy was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
He said: “I will not leave this role until we have brought forward a social care role we can be proud of.”