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Category: Andy Burnham

  • Government choosing not to cut energy bills, say Greens in response to latest energy price cap

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    Green Party MP Hannah Spencer by ©House of Commons, CC BY 3.0
    Green Party MP Hannah Spencer by ©House of Commons, CC BY 3.0

    Responding to the hike in energy prices to the highest level for three years, under the regulator Ofgem’s latest price cap, Green MP Hannah Spencer said:

    “It’s a repeat story for millions of households – energy bills up just in time for winter, and now to their highest level in three years. Meanwhile, oil and gas companies rake in billions in profits.

    “Bill payers are being ripped off, and while Burnham keeps talking about giving struggling households breathing space, today’s rise in the price cap will see his measly £45 a year bill reduction more than wiped out.

    “The government could immediately cut bills by removing policy costs and the costs of servicing energy debt off bills and onto wealth taxes. They are choosing not to.

    “The Green Party knows that small tweaks won’t cut it. Only by scaling up renewable energy, ending rampant profiteering by energy giants, insulating millions of homes, and fully decoupling the price of gas from electricity can we bring down bills for good. Giving the green light to new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea won’t cut bills, it will only worsen the climate crisis.”

  • Increased mayoral powers “the very opposite of devolution” say Greens

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    Councillor Emily O’Brien, Facebook

    Responding to news that mayors across England are to be given new powers to overrule local councils on some planning decisions, leader of the Green Group at the Local Government Association (LGA), Councillor Emily O’Brien, said:

    “Green-run Councils and Green Party councillors will be appalled by this centralisation of power. This Labour Government likes to talk about ‘devolution’ but this is just the latest and most shocking demonstration that their real agenda is not handing power down, but taking it away from local communities and local councils.

    “Our residents do not want to see planning put it in the hands of regional mayors, who are out of touch with and not directly accountable to local communities. Increasingly, developments will be signed off by officers under national rules, eroding local democracy and leaving fewer decisions to be made in public. This is the very opposite of devolution.”

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    UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
    UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.

  • Greens slam Burnham’s ‘free labour for Sainsburys’ con

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    https://www.thecanary.co/skwawkbox/2026/08/27/burnham-sainsburys

    Lambeth’s Green council leader has slammed PM Andy Burnham for his ‘free youth Labour for Sainsbury’s’ plan – which just happens to benefit one of Burnham’s major donors. Burnham went to Lambeth to launch his stunt – many say con – yet did not invite local council leader Martin Abrams.

    And Abrams pulled no punches in outlining the scale of the free workforce Burnham’s workfare scheme is handing to his billionaire donor’s company:

    Sainsbury’s: cut jobs, gain forced labour

    Sainsbury’s, according to the government’s spin, has “created 10,000 work experience opportunities for young people”. Like army recruitment, the scheme will target poor communities:

    New programme launching from October will target schools with higher levels of free school meal uptake and communities where young people face some of the biggest barriers to work

    But the young people will be paid benefits from the public purse, not wages from Sainsburys’ fat accounts – and will face ‘conditionality’ that means they will lose benefits if they don’t agree to work for nothing.

    Sainsbury’s, meanwhile, will fatten its profits even further – and have free workers to replace the 3,000 it made redundant last year while announcing an annual profit of over £1bn.

    …

    Continues at https://www.thecanary.co/skwawkbox/2026/08/27/burnham-sainsburys

  • Morning Star Editorial: The long economic crisis Britain’s not talking about

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/long-economic-crisis-britains-not-talking-about

     Secretary of State for Wales Stephen Kinnock (left) and Prime Minister Andy Burnham arrive for a visit to Tata Steel in Port Talbot, on the next leg of his summer tour meeting local communities outside Westminster, ahead of Parliament’s return next week,

    ANDY BURNHAM’S visit to Wales coincided with today’s announcement of current youth unemployment. In Wales 17 per cent of young people available for employment are without work. Figures are worse in London and north-east England. Overall they are higher by 30,000 than the same figures this time last year.

    Earlier in the week the Prime Minister announced he was convening the National Economic Council this October, bringing together the first ministers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to discuss economic development. This council, re-established shortly after Burnham took over as prime minister, was originally set up by Gordon Brown in 2008 in the face of global financial crisis.

    We are not yet in such a crisis. But omens are not good. Values in the London stock exchange are up over a third on where they were a decade ago — for a period when there has been virtually no growth in Britain’s economy. And this is not mentioning Elon Musk, the AI speculators, arms spending and Trump’s wars.

    However, for the young people in Wales, and all other places, what really matters will not be what happens next year but during their working lives: the next 40 years. Here three reports published over the last month by the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) are of particular importance.

    The first, by William Ellis and Carsten Young, is on “Why We Need a Better Fiscal Framework.” They calculate that, on current projections, interest payments on government debt, will increase from the current 7.6 per cent of tax income to anything between 21 and 47 per cent over the next 40 years — the money going to the very wealthy who hold the bonds and crushing anything that remains of the welfare state.

    …

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/long-economic-crisis-britains-not-talking-about