Andy Burnham faced the Commons at his first PMQs as Prime Minister this afternoon (2 September). Here are three things we learned:
The government’s summer holiday is over
Over the summer, Burnham and his team were criticised for dodging scrutiny by releasing their plans for government in a series of neatly coordinated 6am policy announcements. Badenoch was keen to use this first opportunity to needle Burnham on some of his promises. She repeatedly asked Burnham where he plans to find the money for policies such as the removal of VAT from electricity bills, and lower business rates for pubs, clubs and music venues, and pushed him on his plans to reduce government borrowing costs. She described Burnham as a “spendthrift Prime Minister” who “wants to say yes to everyone”.
Burnham shot back, using the opportunity to mark a decisive break with Keir Starmer’s government by pointing to his decision to scrap the digital ID programme. “We made a decision early on to be clear about our priorities,” Burnham said, “digital ID is not a priority”. He likely will not have thanked Darren Jones – the former chief secretary to the prime minister who was sacked by Burnham in the July reshuffle – whose criticism was taken up by Badenoch. “The chief secretary to the prime minister said there was no money allocated,” she said. “You can’t cut something that never existed in the first place”.
The debate over defence spending isn’t over yet
In her previous exchanges with Starmer, Badenoch was keen to push him on his position on defence spending. Things were no different with Burnham. Pressing the new Prime Minister on whether he plans to cut welfare spending to increase funds for defence, Badenoch said: “Mr Speaker, the honeymoon is over. Isn’t it time for the Prime Minister to ditch the vibes and get serious about defending our nation?”
Flanked by his new Chancellor, John Healey, who resigned from his role as Starmer’s defence secretary over the defence investment plan, Burnham looked delighted. “The very reason I appointed this Chancellor to his position is because of his strong commitment to the defence of our country,” he said. Burnham committed the government to fully funding the defence investment plan.
On welfare, Burnham gave yet another hint of how he plans to tackle the issue – focusing on young people who are out of work and struggling to find a job. “We have so many people in their twenties, not in education, employment or training,” Burnham said. “I can’t defend that. And I want to change that.” He hinted at being open to working cross-party on this – as he has attempted to do on social care. “I hope the right honourable lady will take up my offer on that point,” he said.
Burnham will do politics differently – but maybe not at PMQs
The Prime Minister repeated his calls for “problem-solving rather than point scoring” throughout his exchange with Badenoch. Yet towards the end of the Leader of the Opposition’s six questions, Burnham seemed to have forgotten this new mantra. On more than one occasion, Burnham pointed to the recent Conservative reshuffle, drawing attention to the promotion of Andrew Griffith to the role of shadow chancellor and his role in Liz Truss’s notorious 2022 mini-Budget (Griffith was financial secretary to the Treasury when the mini-Budget was passed).
In response, Badenoch tried to downplay Griffith’s role. “He said he wants a new politics. He said he wants honesty,” she said, “why is he pretending that a junior minister wrote that budget?” Burnham came back: “He was hardly some PPS to the Defra secretary,” he said, giggling, before turning around to apologise to the Environment Secretary, Angela Eagle, sitting behind him on the frontbenches. “With all respect to my right honourable friend.”
[Further reading: Burnham’s back, and he’s going to try to be nice]
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