Shadow Chancellor blasts 'flip-flopper' Andy Burnham over 'lack of economic plan' - as he pays tribute to 'remarkable' Ann Widdecombe

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Speaking on LBC, Stride also paid tribute to former Tory MP Ann Widdecombe, who was found dead with serious injuries in her Dartmoor home last Thursday, describing her as an "incredibly forthright person" who "knew what she believed".

Stride - who serves as Shadow Chancellor in Kemi Badenoch's opposition cabinet - told Simon Marks that what "really troubles me is there's no discernible plan that Andy Burnham has for government."

"That has essentially been the downfall of Keir Starmer - it became very clear early on in the life of this government that Labour did not have a plan," he added. "They didn't have a plan for the economy."

He went on to blast Burnham, whose path to Downing Street looks virtually guaranteed after he secured a majority of Labour MP nominations for the party leadership, as a "flip-flopper".

Read more: Ann Widdecombe murder ‘not politically motivated’, say police - as man, 28, still in custody

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"He's been a Blairite, a Brownite, a Corbynista," Stride went on to say.

"He has had all sorts of different views on, on tax and spending that we've been hearing about over the last month.

"But the fundamentals, I don't think, are going to change. We're still going to have a Labour Party whose backbenchers are not prepared to take the tough decisions."

Presented with analysis by the Office for Budget Responsibility, which last week recommended imposing taxes or spending cuts to avoid debt from spiralling, Stride suggested that the UK's finances could instead be stabilised by getting a "grip on the welfare bill".

"There is an approach that would say, just keep taxing people...but there's a far better way of doing it, which is to grip public spending, particularly the welfare bill."

And asked if he believed Andy Burnham's plans for more devolution in England were a good idea - including a 'No 10 North' in Manchester - Stride said it would depend on whether it led to more bureaucracy.

"If it means devolving programmes to get people into work and so on, then that's great...but if it means extra layers of bureaucracy and decisions taken at local level that lead to taxes going up— you've seen that with the holiday tax that the government has come forward with.

"They've allowed through devolution local areas to apply an additional tax to hotels and bed and breakfasts and so on. Now, that's not a good thing."

He added that the Conservatives would be willing to work with a Burnham administration on bringing down the welfare bill.

"If he is short of the votes to get sensible welfare reform through, to get people off benefits into work, So we can get taxes down for businesses, that offer is there."

Mr Stride also paid tribute to Ann Widdecombe, who was found dead with serious injuries in her Dartmoor home last Thursday.

Devon & Cornwall Police believe she was attacked inside her home at 12:30pm on Wednesday, 8 July meaning she was found 24 hours after her death.

A 28-year-old man was arrested in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, at around 9pm on Saturday night on suspicion of murder. He remains in police custody.

Police claim there is still no information to suggest that this is a terrorism-related incident nor politically motivated.

Stride praised Miss Widdecombe as an "incredibly forthright person" who "knew what she believed".

"Not everybody agreed with her, but they respected her for her conviction. But she did combine it with that twinkle in her eye, that incredible energy that she had, and that personality that ultimately, of course, reached millions of people. So she was a very special person in that way."