Andy Burnham confirms cost of living announcement to help people ‘feel’ better off 'by the end of the year'
Andy Burnham has confirmed that a cost of living announcement is coming tomorrow, where he hopes that he will bring in changes that will "make a difference" to voters before the year is out.
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The new prime minister told reporters this afternoon that he was “finalising the details”
He was asked if he was looking at bus fares, energy bills or rent freezes as he entered No10 this lunchtime.
The Prime Minister said the measures were those “that could make a difference this year”.
He said: "We are looking at measures that could make a difference this year. So we are looking at all of those things but we will make more announcements tomorrow.
"We're just finalising the details. It's premature to say it will be any one of those particular things.
"We just want to do some things that people will feel and feel quite quickly. It won't solve everything, it won't take all of the pressure off but it just shows the direction of travel and that we're serious about helping them out."
But the PM insisted that he would still be sticking by the 2024 Labour election manifesto - though he did not comment on whether he would be calling an early election.
The next one is to be called by 2029, under the current rules, but it’s now in the gift of the PM to do so.
He vowed: "I will stick to the manifesto. I will be bold and I will be true to what it says, but there are big changes that I can implement coming from that Manifesto.
"It is about a new political model. It is about a new economic model for the country."
The PM made his first visit this morning to a homeless charity in central London, and vowed to make ending rough sleeping a priority for his government.
However, critics have suggested that the figures have gone up in the last few years.
Mr Burnham told reporters this afternoon: "The problem was down significantly from when I came in as mayor in Greater Manchester.
"Some of the issues that you mentioned were outside of our control, but what I learned was we ran a scheme every night, 600 beds, called A Bed Every Night, and we funded it through various different ways. But we were the only place that was doing it, and you won't be able to get the numbers down if you're the only place.
"And other cities, people are coming to Manchester.
"So it taught me that the only way is to do this together. Everybody pulling in the same direction, everyone in, as we did in the pandemic, because we did bring people inside in the pandemic. And that's what I'm saying as I go into government today. We did it then, we can do it now.
"Get the basics right, put care for people at the heart of everything that we do, and just get this country working as it should again.”
He said he wants to “work on the platform that Keir Starmer has left to deliver that change, a massive change of our politics” - pointing to the setting up of Number Ten North to “take the power out of Westminster and Whitehall and into every postcode in the land”.
He used his speech outside No10 today to say he wanted to put more of the basics “under stronger public control to make them affordable to people again”, alongside plans to “reindustralise Britain” and “using public procurement to back British industry”.
He said his first calls in office would be to Donald Trump and President Zelensky and he vowed to stand with the Ukrainian leader “100 per cent - as Keir Starmer has been”.
The PM indicated in an interview with The Times newspaper that he was keen to look at the personal allowance thresholds, which have been frozen for a number of years, which has “dragged more people in” to paying it.
He said: “All of this will be looked at… at the budget… it’s obviously difficult given the financial circumstances in which we find ourselves.”
The PM added: “I wanted to recognise the point because, you know, it's challenging for people and it's people on the lowest incomes perhaps who most have been affected by that.
"So it's an issue that I'm just kind of showing I have the visibility of the issue and the impact it's having…. but it's difficult because changing the threshold is not without significant consequences, but I'm looking at it.”
He said that raising the top tax rate to 50p was “premature”, adding “I’ve barely got my feet under the desk”.
Social care will be a priority for the incoming PM too, he said.
The PM said: "I've thought a lot about social care… this is in the billions now, this costs billions every year in the NHS. So that has to be taken into account alongside a conversation with the public about, well, how could we pay for a care system that operates on the NHS principle? And I think that's important because if the system operates in the same way from the front end to the , then I think you can manage it in a much more efficient way. So Louise Casey is starting a national conversation on these issues. I am ready to use some of my political capital on this issue.
"I'll be blunt with you. I would not want to leave office having done what Westminster has done, not just for 15 years, actually. I think you're getting close to 30 years when the Royal Commission— it's not defensible. How many people have lost their homes and their savings in that time? We need to face it and fix it."