Andy Burnham has said he still believes the UK is far too exposed to global shocks, defending comments last year when he said the UK should be less “in hock” to the bond markets. He said the comments had been deliberately misinterpreted by the former prime minister Keir Starmer and his advisers and said his aim was not more borrowing and spending but a far more resilient economy. Burnham’s comments in an interview with the New Statesmen last year made waves before the Labour conference because of the then Greater Manchester’s clear ambitions to replace Starmer as prime minister.
In a fresh interview with the magazine on Wednesday, he said he had intended to highlight how vulnerable the UK was to global price fluctuations. Government borrowing has climbed again over the past months as energy prices have risen in response to continued deadlock on the Iran war. The UK government borrowed a higher than expected £18.3bn last month, putting further pressure on the chancellor, John Healey, as he prepares for next month’s budget.
Burnham said he wanted to build an economy that was far less vulnerable. He said criticism from Starmer and the then chancellor, Rachel Reeves, was unjustified. Burnham, who will address his first Labour conference as prime minister in Liverpool next Tuesday, said he would set out his political vision, which would be a break from the economic and political mainstream of the past 40 years.
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