Andy Burnham has unveiled a sweeping agenda to transform Britain by outlining plans to alter the pension triple lock to fund social care.
Addressing the Labour Party conference for the first time as prime minister, he pledged to reverse the deregulatory legacy of Margaret Thatcher from the 1980s, placing utility sectors, energy, and housing under stronger public oversight.
He lay the groundwork for bringing water firms back into public hands, and potentially overhauling the UK’s electoral system.
To finance a long-sought National Health Service-style social care model across England, Mr Burnham announced intentions to phase out the existing pension guarantee, which currently ensures annual rises matching wage growth, inflation, or 2.5 per cent—whichever is highest.
Furthermore, he indicated that Labour's upcoming election campaign will feature an explicit pledge to replace the first-past-the-post voting mechanism currently utilised in parliamentary elections.
Mr Burnham also set out the need for the UK to decide on its “long-term relationship” with the European Union, vowing to set out “options” for ties with Brussels around the major UK-EU summit later this year.
In an emotional speech, following the death of his father Roy earlier this month, Mr Burnham choked up as he said: “The United Kingdom my dad represented is the one I believe in.”
But addressing delegates in Liverpool, he said: “This country isn’t where any of us would want it to be.”
Mr Burnham, who replaced Sir Keir Starmer in No 10 in July, claimed there was a “sense of the powers-that-be pulling against the people, not with them”.
“If there’s one thing I want to put right, it’s that,” he said.
Taking aim at the changes introduced since the Thatcher administration in the 1980s, Mr Burnham said: “Britain has been on the wrong path for a long time.
“Deindustrialisation. Deregulation. Privatisation. Austerity. Brexit.
“And what has it given us? A country run for vested interests, not in the public interest.”
He compared his task in building a new form of politics to the 1945 Labour government’s efforts to reshape the country in the wake of the Second World War.
Mr Burnham said: “We built the common good. Or at least we did until the 1980s.
“Suddenly, the common wealth we had created for the many was seen as an opportunity for the few.
“Homes. Water. Energy. Transport. Care.
“Broken up and sold off.
“The British right talk about ‘taking back control’.
“Never let them forget: they are the ones who gave it away in the first place.”
Setting out his plans for a new National Care Service, Mr Burnham said he wanted to build a “national consensus” around plans being drawn up following a consultation by Baroness Louise Casey.
“I accept I may pay a political price,” he said.
“But someone has to go through the pain barrier and rip the plaster off.”
Under the plan, the state pension would rise in line with inflation or 2.5% from 2030, breaking the triple lock’s automatic link with increases in average earnings.
But officials insisted it will also rise by more than this if needed in some years, to ensure it holds its value relative to earnings.
