Andy Burnham has doubled down the government’s opposition to Tory mayor Ben Houchen and Reform mayors who want to issue tax rebates with the new income tax and business rates portion that they will be given. He told reporters:
“This is not about allowing mayors to become a sort of mini-Chancellor of the Exchequer or a local Home Secretary, those issues around taxation and asylum are national policy matters.
This is a policy that is about growth and investment, an area where the UK is currently underperforming quite significantly and it’s the case actually that the cuts of the 2010s and onwards are a big part of that problem. If you don’t invest, you don’t get the growth, so I think they’re kind of misunderstanding the purpose of this. It is about bringing infrastructure up where we know it’s not good enough, Doncaster Airport, Manchester Sheffield connectivity we were just talking about, it’s about investing to get the growth, so I think they should perhaps go back and read the policy and, you know, kind of make sure that we’re all on the same page with it.
They don’t have to go for all of the things that are being suggested here, but, you know, we think these things will start to provide an answer to the low growth Britain has experienced over the last decade and more places start to see levels of growth that Greater Manchester has achieved.”
Ben Houchen says he will do it anyway in Teesside. For anyone who hasn’t noticed – Burnham is in reality a big centraliser. My way or the highway…
Burnham confirms he spoke to Trump last night about drilling in the North Sea:
“I indicated in the phone call that we had a week last Monday that I would take a pragmatic approach when it comes to the North Sea, and that is my intention as we go forward from here. There is a resource there. When people are struggling, we can’t ignore that. Hence, me indicating that to the president…”