Burnham not ‘squeamish’ about cutting welfare bill to fund defence

Andy Burnham has said he would not be “squeamish” about reducing the welfare bill to fund defence spending.

After the resignation of defence secretary John Healey and armed forces minister Al Carns over the long-delayed defence investment plan (Dip), Mr Burnham said “the world has changed” and it was “obvious” the Government would have to adjust its assumptions about defence spending in response.

The Greater Manchester Mayor, who hopes to return to Westminster in next week’s Makerfield by-election, and has made no secret of his Labour leadership ambitions, said his plan would be to free up money for defence from welfare.

“I am not squeamish about saying that the plan would be to reduce the welfare bill,” he told The Times.

However, he said this would not just be through “crude cuts”.

“It is not the traditional Westminster way of just crude cuts, short-term cuts that then create a backlash and create more political turbulence.

“It is actually going to do things that will reduce the benefits bill, moving towards a more preventative state that makes the right investments to support people into work.”

He told the paper he would favour a ten-year approach to defence and security as well as public investment and procurement.

This would mean having a measurable commitment to “social value”, such as work placements and apprenticeships for young people, under all public procurement.

He would want defence spending to provide “maximum social return” in terms of apprenticeships and support for British industry and jobs.

“If you have a very ambitious defence investment plan you can also apply very strong social value weighting so you maximise apprenticeships, you maximise support for British industry and British jobs. So you unlock from existing spending the maximum social return.”

He did not rule out raising taxes if he were in charge, but said he would “tread carefully” in making any pledges.

“I tread carefully because I’ve heard very much from people in this campaign that the tax decisions in the 2024 manifesto have been … problematic in terms of employers’ national insurance.

“That is a recurrent theme. So I’m not going to write that type of manifesto policy now, but I think decisions on tax going forward are going to need to be thought through extremely carefully.”

The Makerfield by-election takes place on Thursday June 18 and is expected to be a race between Mr Burnham and the Reform UK candidate Robert Kenyon.