‘Businesses are not cash machines’ – Badenoch calls on Burnham to rule out tax rises
Kemi Badenoch has called on Andy Burnham to rule out tax rises as the new Prime Minister has made a series of small unfunded promises.
The Tory leader said Burnham seemed “like a nice guy” and had a “sense of humour” yet she ridiculed the Prime Minister’s early flurry of policies.
In her speech overlooking Canada, Badenoch said Burnham should not pay for his new pledges with further levies on the wealthy after Rachel Reeves had raised some £65bn in extra annual revenue.
She called on the Prime Minister to “rule out tax rises to pay for his spending spree”.
“If Andy Burnham raises taxes again, he will pretend he is punishing ‘the rich’. The truth is he will punish the engineer whose factory is not built, the apprentice whose job never exists. the family whose bills rise again,” she said.
“This is what Labour never understands. Businesses are not cash machines for politicians.”
The Tory leader said: “Bus fares are expensive because fuel is expensive. Energy is expensive. Employment is expensive. Regulation is expensive. Government has made nearly everything more costly, and Andy Burnham’s answer is to cap one price and send the bill somewhere else.
“But somewhere else is always someone else. A taxpayer. A business. A family. Someone will pay. And they will pay in higher taxes.”
A Labour Party spokesperson hit back at Badenoch, saying that “Tory politics” had “let people down for years is a recipe for disaster and will only hold Britain back”.
They added that his early policy announcements on capping bus fares, stripping VAT from energy bills and swapping lower business rates for pubs by hiking business rates on vape shops were “just the start”.
Badenoch’s new opponent
Badenoch’s new sparring mate across the dispatch box has forced the Tory leader to rethink her opposition tactics, with the new government promising to take a different approach to Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership.
Taxation and immigration are likely to remain hot button issues splitting the two mainstream Westminster parties. Burnham’s promise to end “point-scoring” and to work collaboratively with opposition parties could, however, add a new dimension to party relations.
Badenoch will also have to battle against a leader enjoying approval ratings that surpass her own. New Yougov polling suggested that Burnham’s net approval rating was on three points compared to Badenoch’s -11.
Burnham’s approval rating is also six points higher than Starmer’s initial rating after the 2024 election and far above Boris Johnson, who started on -18.