'NO idea what Burnham stands for!' Labour SLATED for secrecy over Andy Burnham's agenda

Hello, good morning and welcome. You're watching and listening to Britain's Newsroom. We're live across the United Kingdom on GB News with Christopher Hope and Miriam Cates. That's right, incoming Prime Minister Andy Burnham has revealed, sort of, his master plan to save pubs and high streets. Well, he's considering hiking business rates on the giant warehouses for online retail companies like Amazon, while lifting high street shops and pubs out of having to pay business rates at all. He spoke to reporters, including me, yesterday as he went into a radio interview. He seemed happy with the public reaction he's had so far. Take a listen. I'm excited, actually, is what I am, by the reaction that I've had to the speech that I made earlier this week. It's been really positive. I did set out quite a big plan for change. It feels like the country says, yeah, okay, this feels like the right thing to do, the right direction. That's certainly the reaction I've felt I've had. So, Chris, we've had no big manifesto, no big speech, but we've had these kind of tidbits of economic insight from Andy Burnham, some of it to do with nationalising utilities, but then this latest idea about raising taxes on the big tech companies on their warehouses and pulling local businesses out of tax. Good idea? Well, a good idea to support the high street. I think we're seeing business rates are crippling small shops. We're seeing all sorts of well-known shops closing. Amazon would say they pay lots of tax through national insurance, so a big employer. Yes, they pay, it seems, less corporation tax than other companies, but they pay tax in a different way. So it's never quite that easy. You squeeze one, like it's a balloon, you squeeze one part of the balloon and something else pushes out. So it's an idea. My objection to the new Prime Minister is we don't really know enough about him. He hasn't given a maiden speech in the House of Commons. When you're an MP, Miriam, the maiden speech is a big moment and you talk about what your priority is as an MP. We've had a speech last Monday in the House of Commons. I don't think there's a lot of questions there either. The lack of scrutiny is alarming and worrying. Of course, we understand that he wanted a much longer period of preparation. He did not want the leadership election or non-election to take place this quickly and understand why, perhaps, to have the summer to prepare his case. Well, he hasn't had that luxury. He's making up on the fly. I'm bouncing sand. Al Carnes may still stand against him. There may be still a contest to run through August, but no one thinks there is. I think it's going to be a coronation. People say there wasn't enough scrutiny of Labour ahead of the last manifesto, when we were asking the right questions then. Well, this time we can't ask any questions and that isn't great for democracy. It isn't indeed. Well, somebody who is willing to answer questions and give us his thoughts is the former Cabinet Office Chief Economist, Jonathan Portes. Jonathan, good morning. Thank you so much for joining us. It's interesting, isn't it, how Labour MPs were so desperate for Andy Burnham to replace Keir Starmer, who of course has become deeply unpopular, and yet neither they nor we really know what his plan is, certainly in economic terms. Do you have any idea what Andy Burnham stands for? Well, I think, first of all, of course, perhaps he would have liked a longer transition, but I think that, frankly, would have been pretty disastrous because it's pretty clear that Keir Starmer is a lame duck and that really decisions that need to be taken within Whitehall aren't being taken because, understandably, no one knows what Andy Burnham thinks. So I think, you know, while it is messy, frankly, the quicker that this all happens, the better. Second, I think that the point is we do know what Andy Burnham thinks on some big issues but not others. We know, for example, that his central driving motivation, the key idea that ran through his theme was localism and devolution, taking power away from Westminster and Whitehall and giving it to cities like Manchester, but also, presumably, not just Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, but also other places, whether that's Yorkshire or Surrey or wherever. So that is a really big idea. It's also a really difficult one because we've talked about meaningful devolution in this country for the last 25 years, at least, across the political spectrum. Michael Heseltine, for example, was a great proponent for the Conservatives, but we've never actually delivered it. And you need an incredible amount of political will and force to drive it through, given the forces that bring that power back to Westminster and Whitehall. So I do think there is a driving theme there. It's just really hard to do. But did you worry that you're filling in the blanks for him, Jonathan Portes? I mean, you've got great ideas, you're a very experienced economist, well respected in this whole area, this whole sector, but we don't know what he thinks, and we're almost drawing onto a whiteboard with what he should be doing. Well, as I said, I think he made some things clear. So he said, so on something there's going to be continuity, right? He's sticking to the manifesto. What does that mean? It means not tinkering with the big rates of tax, and it means sticking with his, the current red lines on Europe, that is not returning to the single market or the custom funion. So that's some big continuity on some pretty big issues. You may agree or disagree. I personally sort of disagree. I think at least after the next election, they should look to change that. But I think it's understandably saying, look, I haven't been elected on my own manifesto. I'm going to stick with the one that the Labour Party was elected on. On other things, I think, as I say, on devolving power, that is a real big political and economic project. It's going to take years, maybe decades. Of course, you don't expect the detail now, but he's made the direction of travel very clear. And I think that what we really should be asking him is, well, what do you really mean? Are you really going to tell the Treasury that they don't have the right to tell local areas what council tax they can set? Are you going to tell local areas that when they get, when they allow houses to be built or developments to go up and tax revenue increases, that they can keep that money instead of it going to the Treasury as it happens now? Those are big choices and big questions. And I think those are the sort of things we should be asking Andy Burnham. He does have the flexibility. He's made the direction of travel clear. But, you know, you have to be prepared to annoy some people to, you know, to override some vested interests and to essentially say to some areas, you're going to win from this, you're going to lose. Jonathan, one of the things that Andy Burnham has been criticised for is his comments on the markets. He famously said, although I think he was misquoted, that we shouldn't be in hock to the bond markets. But of course, we are so indebted as a country. We're playing so much interest that frankly, any prime minister is going to be constrained by those who are lending to us. Do you think Andy Burnham has enough headroom to make any changes at all? I think that for the reasons you set out, you are constrained by the bond markets. He does not have wiggle room to hugely increase borrowing. That is quite clear. We cannot, you know, if he were to suddenly say, actually, I'm going to ditch the fiscal rules. We're just going to borrow a lot more money because there are all these things I want to do. That would be crazy. And there's no sign whatsoever that he's going to do that. In fact, he said very clearly that he's not. And I'm pretty sure that he's serious about that, because if he wasn't, it would be a disaster. We'd be back to the Liz Truss fiasco. That's what she did. And of course, it was a complete disaster. So, he's not going to repeat that mistake. So, that doesn't mean government can't do anything, but it means you have to operate within those constraints. It means that, for example, if you want to spend more on defence, you have to work out what you're going to spend less on elsewhere. It means that if you're going to, for example, as I imagine the government will want to, help people with energy bills this winter, you need to work out whether you're going to put up taxes. Jonathan, before you go, can I ask one question? Do you think he can get away with his plan announced so far in the speech on Monday and elsewhere without having a general election? Can he stay within the tramlines of the manifesto from July 2024? I think he can. It constrains him from doing some things which you might think are good ideas. But it's certainly possible to stay within it. It just means your room for manoeuvre is more limited, and you have to be more clever and more imaginative. And that's the challenge that faces him. Okay. Jonathan Portes, thank you for joining us today. Thank you. Well, still ahead on Britain's newsroom...