Sir John Major has made a devastating criticism about the consequences of a coronation of Andy Burnham as Labour’s new prime minister, warning him that dealing with local issues as a regional mayor is no preparation for handling international affairs.
The former prime minister, speaking to The Independent’s editor-in-chief Geordie Greig to mark the 10th anniversary of the EU referendum, admitted he was sceptical about whether Mr Burnham’s experience as mayor of Manchester will be helpful if he, as expected, moves into Downing Street.
“Mr Burnham has been a success as the mayor of Manchester, but dealing with buses is a little different from dealing with government, not to mention Xi, Putin, Trump, Macron, Merz – that’s a different sort of problem than dealing with buses in Manchester.”
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In a wide-ranging interview in which he said Britain must rejoin the EU single market in the next five years, Sir John raised concerns that Mr Burnham will not see his ideas for government tested before he takes office if there is no leadership challenge and he is “parachuted in”.
“It’s when you’re questioned and pushed about them that you realise the fallacy and what you have to do, because people will point out the defects.”
He also worries that Mr Burnham would turn further left than Sir Keir Starmer and seek to raise taxes even more.
“Turning left effectively means tapping the money tree and increasing benefits. And we haven’t got the money to do that. The new chancellor, if there is one, is probably going to have to put up taxes to meet the requirements of defence, never mind anything else.”
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But Sir John noted that whoever leads the government will have to tackle the burgeoning welfare bill, something that Sir Keir was prevented from doing by a Labour backbench rebellion.
He also mocked Labour as the governing party edges closer to making Mr Burnham – who until last week was not even a member of parliament – its next leader despite having hundreds of MPs on the Commons benches.
“I mean, there are 400 Labour MPs, and out of those 400 MPs, they cannot find a leader. That’s a remarkable reflection upon the calibre of people in the Labour Party.”
Sir John gave his blessing to his latest successor as Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch, despite their strong differences of opinion on Brexit and the European Convention of Human Rights, even with the party still struggling in the polls.
He said: “I think she is a politician who is still growing. I think there’s every chance that she will turn out to be an absolutely excellent leader. Far better than anybody would have imagined.”
He also coincidentally backed comments by Ms Badenoch describing education secretary Bridget Phillipson’s raid on independent schools to raise cash by adding VAT to fees as “spiteful”.
He said: “Spiteful things that they have done, like the increase in VAT on private schooling. People are educating a child at their own expense. And these aren’t all rich people. There are many people where both parts of the marriage go out to work, and the whole of one part of it is simply used to pay for those fees. They would have had to be paid by the taxpayer, and now they put it up 20 per cent.”
Sir John also criticised some of the policies of Rachel Reeves, who is widely expected to be ousted as chancellor should Mr Burnham move into No 10 next month.
“I think some of the things she’s done have been damaging. I think the obvious one that has been touted many times is increasing employers’ national insurance contributions. There are so many young people who can’t get jobs, and part of the reason they can’t get jobs is that they’re now too expensive to employ.
“Piling these extra costs on employers – the belief that seems to be there in the Labour Party that there is a vast degree of money that can be tapped, without loss, from people who are comfortably off or wealthy.
“The very wealthy can move their capital. The mega wealthy already have; the number of people who’ve moved their money and their investments out of the United Kingdom since the budgets recently is remarkable.”
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