Burnham — Open to Wealth Tax; Abolish IHT, Replace with Social Care Levy
Andy Burnham used Friday’s Makerfield campaign launch to say he would look at proposals from Wes Streeting, the former health secretary, for a wealth tax. Burnham also suggested that inheritance tax could be abolished and replaced with a social care levy paid to fund improvement in the sector. The proposals position the Burnham leadership pitch materially to the left of the 2024 Starmer-Reeves prospectus: alongside his earlier commitments to proportional representation, council tax reform, rail renationalisation and more council houses, the Burnham platform now has a substantive fiscal architecture distinct from the current government.
Burnham’s allies are reported to be pushing Ed Miliband as his pick for chancellor if he wins Makerfield and replaces Starmer as Labour leader. The wealth-tax framing aligns Burnham explicitly with Streeting’s “first campaign pledges” (the Sure Start restoration funded by a wealth tax, unveiled on Friday) — even as the two contest for the same Tribune-Group-adjacent soft-left base. The IHT-to-social-care-levy idea picks up a long-running social-policy thread: think tanks across the political spectrum have argued for hypothecating funds for adult social care, but no major UK party has so far made an explicit pledge. Burnham is the first senior Labour figure with a realistic leadership prospect to put it formally on the table.