Andy Burnham was officially declared leader of the Labour Party on Friday after a short contest in which he was the only candidate, having won the backing of 379 MPs.
Some opposition parties have urged him to call a general election to secure a public mandate for his premiership. Labour chair Lucy Powell, however, said Burnham will stick to the promises set out in the party’s 2024 general election manifesto while taking a more ambitious approach to delivering them.
Powell highlighted that the manifesto addressed the redistribution of power, ‘the rewiring of our country’ and taking on vested interests. She said Burnham ‘really understands the bigger, bolder measures that are needed to live up to the manifesto promises.’
She described his leadership as an opportunity to ‘reset’ priorities and pointed to his decision to scrap the planned digital ID scheme as an early example of reprioritising. Burnham said he would ditch the plan announced last year by Sir Keir Starmer; Powell added the scheme would have cost a ‘not insignificant amount of money’ and could have distracted from the government’s priorities.
Separately, the BBC has been told Burnham’s government will announce plans to allow new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea. Powell said he would be ‘pragmatic’ on the issue and that the move was ‘more a change of emphasis’ than a change of policy. US President Donald Trump praised the plan on social media, saying tapping North Sea oil would make the UK ‘one of the Richest Countries anywhere in the World.’
The oil and gas announcement is expected to form part of a package of measures that could include bringing water and energy companies under greater public control and a new programme to build council housing. Burnham has previously called for ‘greater public control’ of water and energy, and has suggested nationalising Thames Water.
In her BBC interview, Powell backed expanded public ownership, arguing the economy had been ‘overly privatised’ and that utilities and other essentials ‘don’t work in the interest of ordinary people.’ She said bills were ‘going up and up because they are run in the interests of private interest, not for the consumers or for taxpayers.’
Former Conservative minister Jacob Rees-Mogg, speaking to the same programme, disagreed: ‘The water industry needs private capital or it has to have taxpayers’ money – no other money is available.’
Labour faces the task of balancing manifesto commitments with pragmatic choices on energy, public ownership and spending as Burnham begins his leadership and seeks to set the new government’s priorities.