Andy Burnham has hit back at Tony Blair in writing with a Times piece. His main arguments:
- Agrees with Blair on “the vital need for higher economic growth as the enabler of greater social justice,” that Labour should focus on “domestic issues, and fixing our own underlying problems, rather than on re-running divisive arguments about rejoining the European Union,” and that “the numbers of young people on benefits is too high.” U-turn alert…
- Attacks Blair on living standards analysis: “The fall in the living standards of millions, and the reality that life has got harder for most year on year since the financial crash in 2008, is, I believe, the gaping omission in his analysis.” Argues this has been “the single biggest driver of the turmoil in politics he describes and the cratering of support for traditional parties of right and left, here and around the world.”
- Attacks globalisation: parties “were too bound into a model of globalisation that led to the crash and, consequently, have since struggled to articulate a fresh approach.”
- Attacks deregulation: “The principal cause of the 2008 crash was a failure of regulation. So how can a new wave of deregulation plausibly be the answer to the problems we have experienced since?”
- Accuses deregulatory Blair of “the real ‘retro’ thinking… the kind of thinking that would doom us to repeat past mistakes and, if we’re not careful, prevent us from protecting children by failing to regulate social media, artificial intelligence and big tech.”
- Attacks New Labour: “The Labour government in which I was proud to serve did many great things. It did not, however, take us off the direction set by Thatcher.”
- Blames the housing crisis on “the failure to reform right-to-buy and fully restore the public housing stock” and the cost of living crisis on “acceptance of the deregulation and privatisation of essential services.”
- “This has given us 40 years of neoliberalism and the simple truth is this: it has not been kind to communities in Makerfield and those like them across the UK. Trickle-down economics did not in the end trickle down very much at all.”
- Lauds his mayoralty: Greater Manchester got “the highest annual average growth anywhere in the UK – 3.1 per cent” alongside “the biggest reduction in inner-city deprivation”
- “This has not come about by leaving things to the market but by being very interventionist and intentional about it.”
- Cites the Stockport regeneration scheme where “private investors walked away” post-pandemic and the GMCA stepped in with “patient public capital.”
- “You can’t just leave it to the market, as Tony’s essay seems to suggest. If you want higher growth in areas that don’t have it, you need strong public control and direction.”
- Makes some policy proposals:
- Bus re-regulation: fares cut from over £4 to a £2 cap, free travel for young people, no 9:30am restriction for older/disabled passengers
- Technical education given parity with academic routes, under devolved local control
- “A huge transfer of power, resources and personnel to combined and local authorities.”
- Reformed public procurement with “full social value weighting, to give local entities the best chance of winning contracts.”
- Home Office reform, with outsourced asylum accommodation in deprived areas criticised as “not the basis for a fair asylum system.”
Light…
