Blair Institute Warns Burnham Against Tax Raid on Investors
Tony Blair’s institute has warned Andy Burnham against aligning capital gains tax with income tax, arguing such a move would send precisely the wrong message and that Britain cannot tax its way to prosperity. The intervention comes as formal access talks begin: Burnham is leading them personally, with officials briefing him on devolution, security threats and “the grisly state of the country’s books”. He is expected to enter No 10 in about a fortnight, and says he will not name his cabinet until he is through the door.
With no election fought and no manifesto of his own, every Burnham tax signal is being market-tested in public — and this weekend brought the first coordinated pushback from the party’s Blairite wing against his expected redistributive agenda, days after Washington privately briefed against his likeliest chancellor. One MP describes “a bunfight for jobs, a bunfight for Cabinet and a bunfight for political space”. His own stated plans so far are narrower: business-rates relief for pubs and small retail funded by levies on online warehouses, and “room for manoeuvre” within the manifesto on tax. Watch today’s Sunday shows for the first on-record responses.