Has anyone seen Andy Burnham? He’s set to be Prime Minister in a matter of days, but he’s been dodging scrutiny like the plague.
Other than going for his daily run, he’s barely shown his face. He even banned journalists from asking questions at the one speech he gave.
It doesn’t inspire confidence that he is a strong leader with a plan to turn our country around when he walks into Downing Street on Monday.
It all begs the question: who on earth is he? What does he stand for?
In reality it’s hard to pin down what Burnham believes. During his by-election he performed five U-turns in a matter of weeks – enough to make Keir Starmer look like a vision of stability.
So to work out what we can expect, Reform UK went back and looked at his record over his long political career.
What we found is that Andy Burnham has spent twenty years reaching for other people’s money.
These include a death tax on family homes, a graduate tax on young people getting their first pay cheque, a £14 billion raid on savings and investment, and new taxes on everything from your parking space at work to your weekend away.
In total, Andy Burnham has supported or not ruled out over £38billion of new or higher taxes.
Combined with the top of the £66 billion of tax rises already imposed by Rachel Reeves, Labour could hit more than £100 billion in higher taxes by the next election.
That amounts to £3,450 per family – eyewatering stuff. All at a time when people are struggling as bills and prices keep going up and up. And when the tax burden is at a post-war record.
Andy Burnham may have more charisma than Keir Starmer (that’s not hard!) but it’s clear he’s still the same establishment politician that believes we can tax our way to prosperity. He’s another career politician that thinks it’s acceptable to say one thing to the public at a general election and do another in practice.
That’s why Reform is launching our summer campaign to stop Burnham’s tax rises.
We are demanding that Andy Burnham rules out each of the 10 measures he has previously supported. He has no mandate to impose them on the British people.
Express readers can be reassured that Reform UK will always take the side of those who have worked hard and done the right thing.
Robert Jenrick is Reform UK’s Treasury spokesman