The deputy Labour leader tells the BBC the incoming prime minister will “reset” the government around the cost of living — as Kemi Badenoch dismisses his plans as “airy-fairy stuff”.
Andy Burnham will keep the pledges Labour made at the 2024 general election but pursue them with greater ambition, according to the party’s deputy leader Lucy Powell. Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg a day before Burnham succeeds Sir Keir Starmer in Downing Street, Powell described his premiership as a moment for “clearing the decks of all the other things that might distract” from the economy and the cost of living. Burnham, declared Labour leader on Friday after standing unopposed in a short contest with the backing of 379 MPs, will formally take office after an audience with King Charles III on Monday.
Powell rejected suggestions that the change at the top would mean tearing up the platform on which Labour was elected. “Our manifesto did talk about the redistribution of power, it did talk about the rewiring of our country, it did talk about taking on some of those vested interests,” she said, adding that Burnham “really understands the bigger, bolder measures that are needed to live up to the manifesto promises”.
Public ownership, housing and North Sea drilling
The deputy leader characterised the new administration as a chance to “reset”, pointing to Burnham’s decision to abandon the digital ID scheme — one of his first moves since becoming Labour leader — as a “small example of reprioritising”. The programme, announced by Sir Keir last year, would have cost a “not insignificant amount of money”, Powell said, while pulling attention away from the government’s priorities.
The BBC has meanwhile been told that Burnham’s government will unveil plans for new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea. Powell said the incoming prime minister would be “pragmatic” on the issue. “I don’t think it’s a change of policy. It’s more a change of emphasis,” she said.
The drilling announcement is expected to sit within a wider package that includes bringing water and energy companies under public control and a new programme of council house-building. Burnham has previously argued for “greater public control” of both sectors and has called for Thames Water to be nationalised.
Powell threw her weight behind greater public ownership, arguing the economy had become “overly privatised” and that the “utilities and essentials of life don’t work in the interest of ordinary people”. Household bills, she said, were “going up and up because they are run in the interests of private interest, not for the consumers or for taxpayers”.
That view was challenged on the same programme by the former Conservative minister Jacob Rees-Mogg, who said: “The water industry needs private capital or it has to have taxpayers’ money – no other money is available.”
‘Not a popularity contest’, says Badenoch
The Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, has offered a sharply different assessment of the incoming prime minister, branding him a “people pleaser” at a moment when the country requires someone able to “take tough decisions, who can face down Labour MPs”.
“The job is not a popularity contest. It is making the lives of all of the people outside this building better. And he has not said what he’s going to do. It’s all airy-fairy stuff,” she said.
Some opposition parties have gone further, urging Burnham to call a general election to secure his own mandate for governing.
How Monday’s handover will unfold
Although Burnham’s path to No 10 has been clear for weeks, the formalities will not be completed until Monday. Sir Keir will first tender his resignation to King Charles, after which the King will invite Burnham to form a government. The new prime minister will then travel to Downing Street, where he is expected to deliver a speech outside the famous black door before turning to the task of filling the top jobs.
Speculation over appointments has been intense since Burnham confirmed he would stand, with particular focus on who will become chancellor. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband had initially looked the frontrunner to succeed Rachel Reeves at the Treasury, but Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has emerged in recent days as another contender for the role.
