Burnham sets out 1970s vision for Britain

Andy Burnham has set out a 1970s vision for Britain in his first speech as Labour leader.

Daily Telegraph 17/07/26

The prime minister-in-waiting said that under Margaret Thatcher, the country had “surrendered control of the essentials – housing, water, energy, transport – and left people exposed to higher costs”.

Opening the door to nationalising public services, he said: “If we don’t have sufficient public control over the cost of the essentials, how can we have control over inflation, public spending and the rest of the economy?”

Mr Burnham added that Britain “took a series of wrong turns” in the 1980s and criticised his generation of politicians for failing to challenge the neoliberalism that “led to the concentration of more wealth and power in the hands of fewer people”.

The MP for Makerfield warned that Labour had one last chance to change and pledged to govern on behalf of “forgotten places everywhere” by taking power away from Westminster and Whitehall, devolving it across the country.

He also insisted that he had not made any decisions about who he would appoint to his Cabinet amid speculation that Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, would be made chancellor.

Mr Burnham was crowned Labour leader at midday after running for the leadership unopposed. He will replace Sir Keir Starmer in No 10 on Monday afternoon, when he will be invited by the King to form a government.

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