Plenty of people were staring at their phones outside the Calais terminal of the Eurotunnel on Monday afternoon, but I sensed I was the only one watching Andy Burnham’s Downing Street address. We left for France under one Prime Minister and came back under another. That’s just how it is
Christian May
Tuesday 21 July 2026 2:19 pm
Plenty of people were staring at their phones outside the Calais terminal of the Eurotunnel on Monday afternoon, but I sensed I was the only one watching Andy Burnham’s Downing Street address. We left for France under one Prime Minister and came back under another. That’s just how it is these days.
My first reaction was, “So that’s what he looks like in a tie,” and my second was, “Why has he dispensed with the podium?” He looked like he was about to cut a ribbon at a new library. In reality, he was pledging to unleash the biggest political and economic transformation for 40 years.
How long had I been away? Had I missed an election? It seemed brazen, to put it mildly, that our new PM could unveil such an ambitious agenda without a single vote having been cast. One of the reasons why Liz Truss failed to impose her own radical agenda was because she lacked legitimacy. I quite liked the sound of her ideas but they should have been debated during a national campaign, not imposed on an unwilling parliament and a baffled electorate. I fear Burnham is about to repeat the same mistake.
He says he has a ten year plan and he’ll tell us all about it later. He’d be better off setting it out and then putting it to the country ahead of a general election. Instead, it seems he’s determined to navigate the “flexibility” of the fiscal rules to ram it down our throats and then run on a “let me finish the job” platform three years from now. Better to seek forgiveness than permission, I suppose.
Spending cuts, tax hikes or more borrowing?
For all his grand plans, the first policy out of the blocks was (drumroll please) £45 off household energy bills. This will cost around £900m and has been funded by diverting money from the (now scrapped) digital ID policy beloved by his predecessor. The only problem is that his predecessor’s right hand man, Darren Jones (also now scrapped) popped up to say they hadn’t funded the policy so there’s no money to reallocate. An hour later, Burnham was telling his new cabinet that he will “always show how we’re going to pay” for policies. Starting from…now.
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The bills are already piling up, and the £955.4bn poured into the Treasury by taxpayers in the 12 months to June won’t touch the sides, meaning Burnham and his new chancellor will be looking at spending cuts, tax hikes or an increase in borrowing to make it all add up.
New leader, same Labour.
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