Does Andy Burnham’s claim this week that his government is a “second chance at a first impression” make any sense? What the new Prime Minister wants to suggest with that line is that he won’t make the same mistakes as Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, who burned through so much political capital for no good reason. But while he won’t make precisely the same mistakes, he may well end up in a very similar position as his predecessors.
There’s a lot about Burnham’s first few days that doesn’t fully make sense, particularly the blizzard of policy and spending announcements. The common theme running through those measures on energy bills, bus fares, and business rates for pubs is that the Prime Minister wants to run a “cost of living government”. He says that his ministers must show how they are going to pay for all their policies – but contradicts that himself by not being clear about how the announcements he’s made so far are going to be funded.
Now the Treasury has made it clear to The i Paper that Burnham will also honour the commitment made by Reeves that pensioners whose only income is the state pension will be excluded from taxation. Pensions will be dragged into taxation next year as a result of the triple lock, which guarantees that state pensions will rise by inflation, wages or 2.5 per cent (whichever is highest). But Burnham and his Chancellor John Healey will ensure that anyone who only has the state pension won’t have to pay tax, with plans on how to assess this due to be announced later in the year.
