LONDON — Britain’s new prime minister spent his first statement to parliament promising to “bring back hope.” Over 204 minutes he demonstrated just how many of those hopes could ultimately be dashed. Taking 125 questions in the Commons Tuesday, Andy Burnham made, hardened or reiterated a dizzying flurry of commitments that would radically alter the British state — if he manages to see them all through. The man who became PM just 43 days ago suggested he will scrap Britain’s first-past-the-post voting system before 2034 if a majority of parties pledging reform — such his own Labour Party plus the centrist Liberal Democrats — win “consensus” at the next general election, due by 2029.
He hinted that he could cap individual U.K. donations to political parties or block those from abroad entirely in future (though as POLITICO revealed, he has declined to do either in the short term). He pledged to shake up England’s privatized water sector as part of a “10-year plan” this fall. He promised to impose his predecessor Keir Starmer’s social media ban on under-16s “at pace.” He repeated his long-held vows to radically reform the social care system, move powers and officials out of Whitehall, release public land for a wave of house-building and “end” rough sleeping — while still bringing down the welfare bill.
The parliamentary chamber began to empty, MPs turning to other duties and their bladders, as the hardiest stayed behind in the hope they would extract yet another commitment from the prime minister. As the session wore on, Burnham hinted he could one day scrap England’s system of local taxation, which is based on property valuations from 1991. In the third hour he even promised to save Jodrell Bank, a locally-beloved cluster of deep space radio telescopes near Manchester that has had its funding cut.
The new prime minister was not offering a free-for-all and, like any minister, swerved more invitations to commit policy than he accepted. He insisted he will make tough choices. Yet he is also enjoying a practical by-effect of being a new leader: He hasn’t yet had to disappoint all the people he will eventually disappoint.
The 125 questions he took showed that the difficulties and trade-offs that come with power are already coming into view. Burnham dropped a hint that he could raise defense spending to 3 percent of GDP by 2030 — a key demand of his chief finance minister, John Healey, when he quit Starmer’s government earlier this year as defense minister. Burnham said he had appointed Healey “precisely because” of his arguments on defense.
Yet both men have pushed back any decision to a spending review in 2027, and will not face easy choices; the U.K.’s long-term borrowing costs are their highest since 1998, and Burnham declined to rule out tax rises in Healey’s fall budget. On paper, the position did not move on Tuesday. The tension was summed up in Burnham’s promise to bring “much more substantial change as promised in [our] 2024 manifesto.” Healey last week put the same thing very differently, saying it was a “continuity of a Labour government with a change of leader.” Contradictions are already emerging within Burnham’s approach.
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