Andy Burnham has been accused of plotting a £4,300-a-year ‘tax bombshell’ on working families – thanks to a massive uncosted spending spree.
The new Prime Minister is facing claims of ‘writing cheques British people can’t cash’ by running up £96billion of policy pledges.
There are fears that Mr Burnham’s hugely expensive raft of proposals will cost families a four-figure bill in extra tax. A damning dossier compiled by the Tories has warned that there is no explanation of how the PM’s plans would be paid for. The analysis is based on the series of pledges unveiled by the Prime Minister in his first week in power but also on his future plans.
Together they are estimated to cost an eye-watering £96billion.
When he took office last week, Mr Burnham outlined a series of headline-grabbing policies that critics have warned would already cost £1.7billion.
That was made up of promises to take VAT off electricity bills, a £2 cap on bus journeys, ending rough sleeping and slashing business rates for pubs and music venues.
Mr Burnham immediately ran into claims that most of the pledges were unfunded.
This week, the PM is expected to unveil his most costly pledge to date – a vow to address the crisis in adult social care, which is anticipated to cost £18billion.
To make matters worse, the Tories accused the Prime Minister of future commitments amounting to another £76billion of uncosted measures as part of his ten-year plan.
These include:
- £18.8billion on council house building;
- £22.7billion to bring Thames Water under public control;
- £14.1billion in future defence spending;
- £12.4billion in unfreezing income tax personal allowances;
- £8billion uplift for foreign aid.
Mr Burnham is under particular pressure to deliver on defence spending because his new Chancellor, John Healey, resigned from the previous government over Sir Keir Starmer’s refusal to meet the bill to upgrade the Armed Forces.
That includes a £5billion defence spending hole for current commitments and an additional £10billion to get to the 3 per cent target for future defence spending, a firm commitment of Mr Burnham’s government.
The new PM has also made clear that Thames Water should be brought under public ownership.
Andy Burnham has been accused of plotting a £4,300-a-year ‘tax bombshell’ on working families – thanks to a massive uncosted spending spree
Mr Burnham is under particular pressure to deliver on defence spending because his new Chancellor, John Healey, (right) resigned from the previous government over Sir Keir Starmer’s refusal to meet the bill to upgrade the Armed Forces
Shadow Chancellor Sir Mel Stride told The Mail on Sunday that Mr Burnham’s plans amounted to ‘writing cheques British people can’t cash’
And he has repeatedly indicated that he will look at lifting income tax thresholds in the autumn.
Shadow Chancellor Sir Mel Stride told The Mail on Sunday that Mr Burnham’s plans amounted to ‘writing cheques British people can’t cash’.
He added: ‘Andy Burnham has spent his first week proving that he is completely without a plan, floating a string of unfunded spending commitments that add up to a £96billion tax bombshell.
‘Families up and down the country, already facing a record tax burden, now face the prospect of huge tax rises.’
Mr Burnham sought to begin his premiership with a spree of positive announcements, starting with a plan to take VAT off electricity bills and save households £45 – to be funded by scrapping Sir Keir’s plans for digital ID cards.
However, the announcement came unstuck almost immediately after Darren Jones, the ex-Cabinet minister in charge of the digital plan, revealed that the project had not been funded in the first place.
That left an £850million black hole in Mr Burnham’s plans on his first day in charge.
Then a plan to cap bus fares at a cost of £450million also seemed to backfire when Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander admitted that the funding details had not been ‘worked through’.
There were also questions over paying for the Prime Minister’s £340million rough-sleeping programme. Mr Burnham was also hit last week by the cost of government borrowing soaring.
Cameron Brown, a former Treasury adviser and partner at Buxlow Advisory, dubbed Mr Burnham’s opening week a ‘loose-lipped extravaganza’.
John O’Connell, the chief executive of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘This £96billion wish-list is economic insanity that treats hard-pressed taxpayers like an unlimited piggy bank.
‘Blowing tens of billions in unfunded state expansion is a reckless raid on working families who are already being bled dry.’
A spokesman for Mr Burnham insisted: ‘This is nonsense.
‘This week Andy Burnham has cut taxes twice and his instinct is to lower taxes wherever possible.
‘Everything he’s announced has been fully funded.’
In an interview, Mr Healey appeared to confirm that he will try to find billions more to spend on the Armed Forces.
The Chancellor insisted that it is the ‘first duty of any government’ to keep the country safe, and promised to ‘meet our commitments on defence to our international allies’.
