ANDY Burnham has offered his “broad support” to Labour’s controversial planned immigration reforms.
The potential challenger to Keir Starmer said voters in Makerfield, where he is running to become the MP, would be glad to see immigration numbers falling this week.
Speaking to reporters after the launch of his by-election campaign, Burnham said: “I had people’s concerns about levels of immigration raised with me, so it’s clear that the Government is moving in the right direction.”
Asked about Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s contentious plans to retrospectively change the time period for people to be granted indefinite leave to remain.
She is planning to change the system so that people who have arrived in the UK since 2021, who would have expected to wait five years before they become permanently settled, could now wait a further five to 10 years.
Indefinite leave to remain grants migrants the right to work and live in Britain for as long as they wish and grants eligibility for benefits.
Asked about Mahmood’s plans, Burnham said: “I know there have been concerns raised by members of Parliament on that issue.
“So, I have indicated broad support for what the Home Secretary is trying to do, but I do think on that issue care needs to be taken.”
And the Manchester Mayor said he supported new guidance on single sex spaces, which will ban trans women from using female toilets or joining women’s sports teams.
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He said: “I think the time has come to take the Supreme Court ruling and the guidance and implement it, but to do it in a way that protects those spaces but does not marginalise already marginalised communities, that’s my view.
“My mum and dad brought me up to live and let live. I think Britain needs to get back to a more ‘live and let live’ approach to life, not where we’re constantly arguing with each other, being judgmental about each other.
“Let’s implement the guidance, but to do it in the fairest and most compassionate way possible.”
Burnham is pitching his campaign as a “vote to change Labour” as he bids to replace the Prime Minister, if elected as an MP.
Allies of Burnham have suggested he may not launch a bid for the party leadership immediately if he is successful in his attempt to return to Parliament in the June 18 contest.
But he is widely viewed as Starmer's main rival for the top job.
Speaking at a campaign event in Ashton-in-Makerfield, Burnham said: “I know my own party needs to change. We need to be better than we have been. A vote for me in this by-election is a vote to change Labour.”
He said the voters of Makerfield would get “the party back they used to know”.
“This is a change by-election. Politics in this country, British politics, is tired,” Burnham said.
“It needs a new script and over the next four weeks the people of Makerfield are going to write that script, and it’s great that they’re going to get that chance.”
Elsewhere, Burnham – a supporter of electoral reform – said he wants to see Labour’s next manifesto commit to introducing proportional representation.
But he ruled out changing the system before the next election, saying: “I think you’ve got to honour manifestos.”
He went on to say there is “space to be more radical” within Labour’s 2024 manifesto, including building more council houses and with rail renationalisation, and he backed reform of council tax.
He said: “It’s a highly regressive tax, and I think it’s not justifiable based on those 1991 valuations. I see a big case for land and property and business taxation to be changed.”
And he suggested he would back a “social care levy”, saying he did not “resile” from previous comments about abolishing inheritance tax in favour of such a charge.
He told reporters: “I know there’s a great resentment about inheritance tax, so actually just, you know, take that away, perhaps, and look at a care levy.
“It’s not about asking people to pay more, it’s just people paying in the most unfair way possible at this moment in time and I think there’s a much better way of doing it, and people just have peace of mind while they’re alive, because they get the care that they need, and then it will be dealt with in a much better way.”
