Burnham and Healey hint at 'challenging' choices ahead, as Labour conference begins
The Prime Minister and Chancellor have said they are able to deliver on their ambitious agenda against a difficult economic backdrop
The Prime Minister and Chancellor have hinted at a “challenging” budget and tough decisions for the upcoming autumn.
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Speaking to the media ahead of the Labour conference, Andy Burnham and John Healey have said they will be able to balance their ambitious growth agenda with tough economic realities.
The chancellor has said there is a “moral duty” to tackle youth unemployment, but in order to do this he will have to debate the case for welfare reform with Labour backbenches.
Government spending is also being constrained by rising borrowing costs due to the economic impact of the US-Iran war, and other global events.
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Mr Burnham insisted his Government could both deliver a bold agenda, whilst also maintaining the public finances amid the fraught economic situation.
He suggested the public would have “more respect for us if we go and grab something difficult … and say, ‘right, we’re going to do something here’, rather than constantly playing the political game before fixing the problems”.
He added: “It’s challenging, definitely, but there are still things that you can do. Always in politics, there are things that you can do. The question is sometimes, are you prepared to do them? Yeah, I am prepared to do them.”
Mr Healey meanwhile suggested he was ready to argue his case with Labour backbenchers opposed to welfare reform, as a means of containing the ballooning costs to the public purse.
“I first got elected nearly 30 years ago for part of Rotherham and in the 1990s, in South Yorkshire, the level of youth unemployment was one in three,” said Healey.
“That, for me, is a moral duty that this Government now must pick up again, with nearly a million youngsters post-Covid, before the election, not in employment, not in education, not in training.
“I refuse to see a generation in jeopardy. I refuse to see a generation condemned to a life on benefits.”
The Chancellor also suggested that he could raise capital gains tax at the October 28 Budget, something his Cabinet colleagues Louise Haigh and Wes Streeting called for over the summer.
He described the levy as the lowest of “any European G7 nation”, leaving open the possibility it could be hiked and still remain lower than Britain’s neighbours.
In what could be the latest step to help households with the cost-of-living crisis, Mr Healey also hinted at allowing a planned fuel duty rise to go ahead.Elsewhere, the Prime Minister offered a further glimpse of his determination to overhaul the social care system following the death of his father, Roy. .
“I won’t leave office without having grasped this nettle,” he said.
“It is a priority for me, and I will face it. And it may make me unpopular, but I’m going to do it,” said the Prime Minister.
Labour’s conference in Liverpool begins on Sunday, with the party’s deputy leader Lucy Powell expected to give a speech to members.
The Prime Minister is expected to outline his agenda for Government at the Labour PArty conference in Liverpool on Tuesday.