People will say almost anything to win power. Sir Keir Starmer’s rise is a case in point. In 2020, he won the Labour leadership by presenting himself as a candidate who would preserve much of the Corbyn-era policy agenda. Once in charge, many of those promises were diluted, abandoned, or quietly reinterpreted. By 2024, he had done something similar on a national scale.
Now, his rival for the throne has taken a leaf out of his playbook. Despite a Labour leadership contest not even having formally begun, the Andy Burnham seems to have no qualms about making constant breakneck turns on policies he advocated just months ago. The Manchester Mayor is also already spitting out swathes of new policies which he thinks will get Labour MPs – and the country – behind him. Ahead of his possible ascendancy to No. 10, here is a list of Burnham’s U-turns and policy promises to date:
U-turns
- Trans: Despite having previously advocated for trans women to be able to use female loos, Burnham has now said he supports the Supreme Court ruling and that its findings should be implemented.
- Migrant benefits: Despite previously advocating for migrants on work, student or family visas to have access to handouts, Burnham now says he opposes the idea.
- Fiscal rules: At Labour conference last year, Burnham accused the government of being ‘in hock to the bond markets’. Earlier this year he pledged to stick to Rachel Reeves’s fiscal rules. On June 5 he said that actually the fiscal rules are up for debate.
- Rejoining the EU: Also at Labour conference last year, Burnham insisted Britain should rejoin the EU. Since the Makerfield by-election kicked off, his stance has softened to ‘respecting the result’ and ‘not advocating’ a second referendum – in the short term.
- BLM: In 2020, Burnham signed a statement supporting Black Lives Matter, but on Question Time he disavowed ‘taking the knee’.
New or reaffirmed policies
- Burnham has pledged to slash the number of peers in the House of Lords and called for the chamber to be subject to an ‘indirect election that could be linked to a general election’.
- Cut business rates for pubs and music venues by 20 per cent.
- Replace council tax with a land value tax.
- Abolish death duties and replace them with a flat-rate ‘national care levy’.
- Introduce proportional representation.
- All utilities brought under public ownership or wrapped in more red tape
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