Andy Burnham faces his first PMQs. (Image: GB NEWS)
Andy Burnham will face a grilling from Kemi Badenoch at his first PMQs today. The Prime Minister will take questions from the leader of the Opposition in the Commons session at midday.
Mrs Badenoch could ask Mr Burnham about a number of topics, including defence, welfare and fears of tax hikes in the Budget.
There is also the ongoing row over the prison early release scheme.
In her first parliamentary exchange with the PM yesterday, the Tory leader accused him of “living in the past” and urged him to “start taking this job seriously”.
But Mr Burnham insisted the country is “moving in the right direction”.
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Tories overtake Reform in poll
The Tories have overtaken Reform UK in a new poll for the first time in 18 months in a huge boost to Kemi Badenoch.
The survey by More in Commons puts the Conservatives and Nigel Farage’s party within one point of each other.
Labour is in the lead on 26%, down one point from the week before, as the party enjoys a bounce under Andy Burnham.
The Conservatives are up one point in second place on 23%, while Reform are down one point on 22%.
The Lib Dems are on 11%, Zack Polanski’s Green Party is on 9%, while Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain takes 4%.
Here’s what Andy Burnham told MPs
The new Prime Minister takes part in his first PMQs in the top job today.
But he also spoke in Parliament yesterday.
The Prime Minister made his debut at the Commons despatch box on Tuesday, when he set out plans to devolve more power away from Westminster and into the regions, and to take back public control over utilities and services.
Mr Burnham blamed the legacy of Margaret Thatcher, the austerity era and Brexit for decades of slow growth, and insisted his plans to change the “failed economic model” would kickstart Britain’s economy.
“Britain is not where any of us would wish it to be,” he told MPs, adding: “Things are not working as they should, life is too expensive and too hard for too many.”
During his Commons outing, he described Britain’s water industry as “a leaking monument to that approach, a country run in the private rather than public interest”.
Throughout his three hour and 23 minute Commons grilling, the Prime Minister declined to say whether there will be tax rises at the October 28 Budget.
But he suggested that his Chancellor John Healey will find money to hike defence spending to 3% of GDP by 2030 by the time of the next spending review.
Poll: Is Brexit to blame for the UK’s slow growth?
Andy Burnham hit out at Brexit in his first address to the Commons as Prime Minister.
The PM claimed Britain had taken “a series of wrong turns” from the 1980s onwards in his statement to MPs yesterday.
Mr Burnham, who was a Remainer, said Britain’s departure from the European Union was partly to blame for decades of slow growth, along with deindustrialisation and privatisation of the 1980s and the impact of austerity
Tories blast Burnham over markets
New shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith lashed out at Andy Burnham amid rising borrowing costs.
He wrote on X: “Markets don’t like uncertainty. Burnham’s loose talk about 1970s-style nationalisations with no plan to pay for them comes at a price.”
Burnham will stick ‘rigidly’ to fiscal rules
Andy Burnham will stick “rigidly” to the Government’s fiscal rules, a minister has said amid rising borrowing costs.
Asked about criticism by Lord Jim O’Neill, an ally of the Prime Minister, Cabinet Office minister Sally Jameson told Sky News: “I think it’s important we don’t over-read into individual comments people make, because I think Andy Burnham has been really clear that we are going to stick to those fiscal rules rigidly, and that fiscal responsibility is absolutely imperative.”
She added: “We’ve got to have controls on spending, and I don’t think Andy or anyone else has said any different to that.
“But I think the key thing is having growth and bringing optimism back into this country.”
Burnham ally criticises his statement
Economist Lord Jim O’Neill, an ally of Andy Burnham, warned that “the tone” of his first statement to the Commons as Prime Minister yesterday was “the last thing investors wanted to hear”.
He highlighted how gilt yields rose 0.25% which has not happened “since the Liz Truss days”.
He told LBC: “Well, Andy made his first big speech in Parliament since after the recess.
“I think actually perhaps his first formally as the Prime Minister, and the tone of it about implying a lot more government spending to take control of X, Y, and Z, is the last thing that investors want to hear on a day where all of this is going on in the background.
“And so yes, they’re like, ‘Who’s going to get real in this country about the challenges of getting our debt down and controlling spending?'”
Burnham faces first PMQs
Andy Burnham will face his first Prime Minister’s Questions today.
The PM made his debut at the Commons despatch box yesterday where he set out his plans for government.
He pledged to devolve more power away from Westminster and into the regions, and to take back public control over utilities and services.
Mr Burnham hit out the legacy of Margaret Thatcher, the austerity era, and Brexit for decades of slow growth, and insisted his plans to change the “failed economic model” would kickstart Britain’s economy.