Badenoch accuses PM Burnham of 'spending spree' and governing like Manchester mayor

Kemi Badenoch has accused Andy Burnham of governing like he is still the mayor of Greater Manchester, with a "spending spree" of early promises.

The Conservative leader said the new prime minister had failed to explain how a series of measures announced during his first days in office could be paid for.

Burnham's early policies include restoring a £2 cap on bus fares in England and cutting VAT on household electricity bills.

Labour defended his announcements, adding he was "bringing back hope after Kemi Badenoch's Tory Party nearly broke Britain".

Burnham told his newly assembled cabinet on Tuesday "we need to be a cost of living government" and he has billed his policy blitz as a first move to give people "breathing space", promising further support when wider tax and spending decisions are made.

Alongside the bus fare cap and energy VAT cut, he has also announced plans to cut business rates paid by pubs and live music venues and find more accommodation to house rough sleepers, in interventions projected to cost around £1.8bn in total.

The government says the plans, funded through a combination of savings, reallocation of money within existing budgets and future tax hikes on "anti-social businesses", have been properly accounted for.

But in a speech in London on Thursday, Badenoch said Burnham needed to be clearer about where his savings would come from and called on him to rule out tax rises at the autumn Budget.

She also criticised him for "floating" possible future policies such as providing social care free at the point of use, a huge expansion in council house building, and increasing the tax-free personal allowance.

"He doesn't actually know what he wants to do, he is thinking out loud. All that we know is it's going to cost a lot of money," she added.

Burnham, who became Greater Manchester's first elected mayor in 2017, has sought to put his near decade-long stint in charge of the city-region at the heart of his Downing Street agenda.

As mayor, he kept a £2 bus fare cap in place when the Starmer government raised the England-wide limit to £3 at the start of last year.

He has also cited Greater Manchester's bus operating model, in which private bus firms bid to run services franchised by the local transport authority, as a possible model for regulating the water and energy sectors.

But Badenoch said the new prime minister needed to "lift his sights to broader things", calling for him to set out plans to fund defence spending and lower the cost of energy for businesses.

"Andy Burnham's ambitions for Britain are too small," she said.

She added: "When you are mayor of Manchester, you are handed a big pot of someone else's money, and you decide where to spend it.

"I'm sure this is great fun. It can make you very popular. But it is not the same as being prime minister".

"Andy Burnham needs to do better. He is behaving like he's still the mayor of Manchester. He is now the prime minister of the United Kingdom, he needs to start acting like it."