Running buses in Manchester is no preparation for the international stage, Major warns Burnham
Sir John Major has delivered a devastating critique of the fallout from Andy Burnham’s coronation as Labour’s new prime minister, warning him that dealing with local issues as a regional mayor is no preparation for tackling international ones.
Former prime minister speaks IndependentTo mark the 10th anniversary of the EU referendum, Editor-in-Chief Geordie Greig admitted he was skeptical about whether Mr Burnham’s experience as mayor of Manchester would be useful when he moves to Downing Street as expected.
“Mr Burnham did well as mayor of Manchester, but dealing with buses is a bit different to dealing with the government – Xi, Putin, Trump, Macron, Merz, not to mention – that’s a different problem than dealing with buses in Manchester.”
He expressed concerns that Mr Burnham’s ideas for government would not be tested before taking office if there were no leadership issues and he was “parachuted in”.
“When you are questioned and pushed about them, you realize what is wrong and what you need to do, because people will point out the flaws.”
He also fears Mr Burnham will turn further left than Sir Keir Starmer and try to raise tax even further.
“‘Effectively turning left means tapping into the money tree and increasing benefits. And we don’t have the money to do that. The new chancellor, if anything, will probably have to tax to meet defence’s needs and won’t care about anything else.”
But he said whoever leads the government will have to deal with the burgeoning welfare bill, something Sir Keir Starmer has been prevented from doing by Labor backtracking.
He also mocked Labor as the ruling party approached making Andy Burnham, who until last week wasn’t even a member of parliament until last week, the next leader despite having hundreds of MPs in the House of Commons.
“So there are 400 Labor MPs and they can’t find a leader within those 400 MPs. It’s a remarkable reflection on the caliber of people in the Labor Party.”
Sir John appeared optimistic about his latest successor as Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, even as the party was still struggling in the polls, despite strong differences over Brexit and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Kemi said of Badenoch: “I think he’s still a growing politician. I think he has a good chance of developing into an absolutely brilliant leader. Much better than anyone could have imagined.”
He also incidentally backed Ms Badenoch’s comments that education secretary Bridget Phillipson’s pressure on independent schools to raise cash by adding VAT to fees was “spiteful”.
He said: “The spiteful things they’re doing, like increasing VAT on private schools. People are raising children at their own expense. And it’s not all rich people. There’s a lot of people where both parties to the marriage go to work and some of that is just used to pay those fees. They were supposed to be paid by taxpayers and now they’ve increased that by 20 per cent.”
Sir John also criticized some of the policies of Rachel Reeves, who is expected to be sacked as chancellor if Mr Burnham is moved into 10th place next month.
“I think some of the things he’s done are damaging. I think the most obvious one, which has been mentioned many times, is increasing employers’ National Insurance contributions. “There are a lot of young people who can’t find work and one of the reasons they can’t find work is because it’s too expensive to be employed anymore.
Putting these extra costs on employers; There seems to be a belief in the Labor Party that large sums of money can be taken from comfortable or wealthy people without loss.
“The very rich can move their capital. As budgets have been eye-catching lately, the mega-rich already have large numbers of people moving their money and investments out of the UK.”
