Will Burnham float rejoining EU? Speculation persists - though Jonathan Reynolds warns this would cause 'uncertainty'
The pensions triple lock may not be the only policy area where Andy Burnham triggers a “hope comes from honesty” policy row this afternoon. Recently he refused to rule out proposing rejoining the EU in Labour’s manifesto and, in a story for the Independent, David Maddox and Athena Stavrou report:
Ministers have told The Independent that the prime minister is building the case to put rejoin in the manifesto at the next election. They have said it is now a question of “how it is expressed in the manifesto, rather than if” …
One senior minister told The Independent that “the mood has completely changed on this subject.”
They added: “There is a lot of momentum around rejoining again. The economic data is there and we are feeling more relaxed about talking about Brexit as being a failure.”
While many in the Labour party would be delighted by this proposal, it would not be universally popular. At a Politico fringe event on Sunday, Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, was very negative about the prospect. He said:
I think we can frankly get more from what we need for our people, for our businesses here, by pragmatically looking at this through a trade lens. How can we improve that trade relationship, rather than these constitutional questions, which, frankly, you know, they cause a lot of uncertainty for business.
Reynolds was even sceptical about joining a customs union with the EU, saying:
Look at the arrangements we’ve already got. You don’t add a lot more to it through a customs union ... and you’d be having to, you know, frankly, accept a whole range of alignment on regulatory issues.
Asked if he wanted the UK to rejoin the EU in his lifetime, Reynolds said:
What will Europe be in the future? I mean, there are clearly very challenging politics in Germany. It’s very clear that the French presidential election could be different. I honestly don’t know if you will evolve in one direction or the other. So I can’t really give you an answer to that.
Sharon Graham, the Unite leader, is another senior Labour figure opposed to rejoining.
Andy Burnham has posted this on social media this morning. It is slightly condensed version of the overnight briefing given to the media. (See 8.40am.)
We can’t carry on as we are.
Politics as usual has taken Britain backwards, and more of the same won’t get us where we need to be.
Today, I’ll set out a different path for our country.
That means having an honest conversation about the things we’ve ignored for too long, from fixing social care and tackling youth unemployment to giving people more control over energy, water and housing.
Hope comes from honesty.
It comes from saying the things politicians usually avoid, being straight about the challenges we face, and having the courage to fix them.
That’s exactly what I will do.
Lucy Powell says Labour committed to triple lock for this parliament - but won't say if it could go after election
Lucy Powell, the deputy Labour leader, has been doing a media round this morning. In interviews, she stressed that Labour is committed to keeping the pensions triple lock for the duration of this parliament. But she did not deny reports that Andy Burnham might use his speech to suggest that it should go in the next parliament. (See 8.40am.)
She told Sky News:
We are committed to the triple lock. It’s in our manifesto. The triple lock has really delivered for pensioners, in this country, over the course of this parliament …
I don’t know what Andy’s going to say about that today, but I know that what he’s talking about is this big conversation about solving these big problems, but being really honest with people that they come at a cost.
You can’t just solve the social care crisis without having the big conversations about how you’re going to do this.
Burnham is told axing pension triple lock would be ‘electoral suicide’ as he prepares to address Labour conference
Good morning. The day after Donald Trump won his first US presidential election in 2016, Ed Miliband (at that point just an ex Labour leader) went on the World at One and gave an astute assessment of the lessons to be learnt from Trump by progressives. Trump was offering “big solutions”, he said – a theory he later fleshed out in a book called “Go Big”. Jeremy Corbyn was Labour leader at the time, and he certainly offered voters a “Go Big” vision – but for various reasons he could not persuade the electorate. But today a more mainstream Labour leader is also going to embrace “Go Big”.
According to the Labour party’s overnight briefing, Andy Burnham is going to use his first conference speech as leader to set out what he will describe as “a more serious prospectus for Britain than people have been offered in a generation”.
Burnham will say:
We can’t carry on as we are. Politics-as-usual has taken Britain backwards. More of the same isn’t good enough and isn’t going to get us where we need to be.
According to the Labour briefing, Burnham will say this will require “honest conversation” with the public and taking on the difficult issues that have been ignored for too long by Westminster, including social care, youth unemployment, and the need for greater public control of energy, water and housing. He will say:
Hope comes from honesty and from saying the things politicians usually avoid.
As Kiran Stacey, Jessica Elgot and Pippa Crerar report in the Guardian splash, Burnham will take his first major step towards putting Britain’s utility companies into public control when he announces a new government-backed body to invest in the electricity grid.
But, for most of the media, it looks as if the story of the day will be another “Go Big” gamble by Burnham. On Sunday he revealed for the first time that he wants to fight the election on a colossal promise – a pledge to set up an NHS-style care service, with care free at the point of delivery. He did not say how this would be funded, but over the past 24 hours Downing Street has done nothing to quash speculation that part of the proposal will involve getting rid of the pension triple lock. This is one of the sacred cows of British politics, conventionally viewed as untouchable (even though in private many politicians from all parties agree with the view of almost all reputable economists, which is that in the long run its costs are unsustainable.)
Burnham does not seem likely to say he will definitely fight the next election on a proposal to get rid of the triple lock. (Labour promised in its manifesto to keep it for this parliament, and Burnham is sticking to that.) “Government sources have suggested Burnham would signal his willingness to review the policy, but stop short of a pledge to scrap it altogether,” we report today in our splash. So it looks as if Burnham will launch a pre-election debate, in the hope that he can persuade the public that axing an expensive and badly-targeted perk for pensioners is a price worth paying for transformative reform to adult social care. In his LBC phone-in yesterday, Burnham accepted there was a chance voters might just say no.
One of the voters saying no is Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite, one of the most powerful unions in the Labour party. Asked about getting rid of the triple lock, she told the Times:
I think it would be almost electoral suicide. Morally, I just don’t think it’s the right thing.
We’re the lowest in the G7 in terms of how much we spend on pensions. I think that’s an embarrassment, quite frankly, because we’re one of the six richest economies in the world. I think it would be an absolute disaster, it would send completely the wrong message. I cannot understand why we keep going back to pensioners.
Here is the agenda for the day.
10am: The conference opens. The first speaker in a debate on power to communities is Chris Byrant, the Northern Ireland secretary. Claire Ward, the mayor of the East Midlands, is also speaking.
10am: Lucy Powell, the deputy leader, speaks at a “what can Labour learn from its members” fringe event. Other ministers speaking at fringe events this morning include Miatta Fahnbulleh, the energy secretary, and Kanishka Narayan, the AI minister.
Around 11.40am: Angela Rayner, the housing secretary, addresses the conference.
2pm: Andy Burnham gives his speech to the conference.
5pm: Bridget Phillipson, the Labour chair, and Alan Milburn, the former cabinet minister who has chaired a review on Neets, speak at a Tony Blair Institute fringe event.
Given that it will be a big day in British politics, we will have comments open later for a few hours. I do look at comments when they are open, but I can’t read them all and if you want to contact me, please email [email protected]. You can use this email to flag up corrections, comments for publication, questions or complaints.
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