Andy Burnham has confirmed plans for a tax cut for state pensioners if he becomes Prime Minister, amid growing concerns over fiscal drag. Speaking to the I paper ahead of the Makerfield byelection, which he won last week, Burnham said he is worried about the rising number of pensioners being pulled into paying income tax due to the freeze on tax thresholds.
Fiscal Drag and Pensioner Tax Burden
The personal allowance has been frozen at £12,570 since 2021, while pensions and wages have increased with inflation. Data shows that a staggering 9.3 million pensioners – around three in four – could be paying income tax by 2030 if no changes are made. “What I have heard on doorsteps is pensioners saying … the freezing of the personal allowance has dragged more and more pensioners into tax,” said the new Labour Party MP. “So, I do think you need to look at that issue as well.”
Pensioners Feel Squeezed
Pensioners, he added, felt that what “they have got through one way, they are saying now that it’s being taken away in another.” Burnham also said he was “not squeamish about saying that the plan would be to reduce the welfare bill.”
Political Reactions to Starmer's Resignation
After Sir Keir Starmer resigned today, Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney paid tribute, saying: “On a personal level, I wish the prime minister and his family well. Leadership is tough, and can make extraordinary demands both on the leader and their families. Sir Keir Starmer has made the right decision. It was past time for him to face reality and the fact he now has allows some hope that things can change.” However, Swinney also said the government needed not just “a change of personnel”, but “a fundamental change of direction”.
Jeremy Corbyn, who was replaced by Starmer as Labour leader before Starmer's thumping general election victory over the Conservative Party, said: “Keir Starmer’s resignation is the inevitable result of a leadership that abandoned the people Labour was founded to represent. He failed to stand up for working people, criminalised the right to protest, and aided Israel’s crimes in Gaza. But this is about more than one leader. Whether Labour turns to Andy Burnham or anyone else, Westminster politics remains broken.” Corbyn added: “Replacing one leader with another will not fix a political establishment that is increasingly disconnected from the lives of ordinary people. Britain needs a new political movement to put power in the hands of people and offer a genuine alternative to a system that has failed the working class for far too long.”
