Andy Burnham told broadcasters this afternoon that he won’t be replacing Stamp Duty… at least at this year’s Budget:
“Yes, I can say that quite clearly. That won’t be happening. It’s just not the case that we are bringing forward plans, on that scale, at this moment in time…
Obviously, what we’re trying to do, though, is to make taxation fairer. I removed VAT off electricity bills. I said we would do that, and that will come through later in the year.
“We are looking at how we take that little bit of pressure off people’s shoulders, reduce the cost of living. These are priorities, and we obviously will keep working towards them…”
‘At this moment in time’ is doing a lot of heavy lifting…
Tom Baldwin, author of Starmer’s hagiography, spoke to Times Radio:
Tom Baldwin: “I think he’d like to do something. He’s very dutiful and driven by service. That’s why he came into politics. I think that’s characterised his time as prime minister. He hasn’t always sought popularity or been good at being popular. But I think he has some of the necessary qualities that we actually do want in a prime minister. That resilience, that relentlessness, that ability to carry the weight and the job really does weigh very heavily on people and he carries that weight very, very well.”
Jo Coburn: “NATO Secretary-General?”
Tom Baldwin: “I think that’s something that he would be interested in. I think it probably requires Andy Burnham’s government to support him in that and these are some of the questions which Andy Burnham has to resolve quite quickly.”