Andy Burnham will begin a national tour of the UK this week to ask voters how his government can improve their lives, with Downing Street saying the Prime Minister will spend much of the rest of August in "listening mode" as he travels the country discussing the cost of living.
The tour, briefed out on Saturday night, will be accompanied by what No 10 describes as a series of "pro-consumer" measures to be rolled out in the coming days, alongside a focus on reviving high streets. Officials said the trip would inform Burnham's promised 10-year plan for the country and was about "getting out of Westminster and meeting people where they are". No itinerary has yet been published.
The intervention comes three weeks into a premiership defined so far by household budgets. Burnham, the MP for Makerfield and former mayor of Greater Manchester, became the UK's 59th prime minister on 20 July after succeeding Sir Keir Starmer, who resigned in June. He told his new ministers they would form a "cost of living government" whose job was to convince households "that help is coming".
A Downing Street spokesperson said the Prime Minister believed Westminster had grown too comfortable with everyday consumer grievances.
"He thinks Westminster has got used to telling people that everyday hassles – like hidden pricing and consumers being ripped off – must be accepted as part of life… He doesn't think that's right. That's why he's going to start rolling out a series of pro-consumer cost-of-living measures to give people some room to breathe."
The tour builds on two announcements made in Burnham's first week. VAT on household electricity will be cut from 5% to zero for six months from 1 October, a move expected to take about £45 off the annual price cap at a cost of roughly £850m to the Exchequer in 2026/27. A £2 cap on single bus fares across most of England will follow in January 2027, backed by £454m in funding, with the total scheme cost expected to exceed £500m.
Both measures have drawn scrutiny. The VAT cut is said to be funded by scrapping Starmer's digital ID scheme, a claim disputed by former minister Darren Jones, who said the scheme had no allocated funding. The consumer champion Martin Lewis has warned that "in practice people won't feel much benefit", particularly with the energy price cap forecast to rise 3.1% in October. Chancellor John Healey has conceded the VAT cut would not "solve the cost of living", but said it would help 29 million homes feel better off.
Larger interventions look unlikely before October's Budget. Healey has promised "strong fiscal discipline", inheriting public debt above 95% of GDP — the highest since the 1960s — and debt interest costs of £111.2bn last year, equal to 8.3% of government spending. Inflation, last recorded at 3% in the year to February before the US-Israel war with Iran pushed up oil and pump prices, is expected by the Bank of England to run at 3%–3.5% through the middle of the year. Bank Rate stands at 3.75% and unemployment at a five-year high of 5.2%.
Opposition parties dismissed the tour. Shadow Chancellor Sir Mel Stride accused Burnham of "breathtaking hypocrisy", saying tax rises and "red tape" were "hammering our high streets". Liberal Democrat Treasury spokeswoman Daisy Cooper said businesses "need more than a new PM embarking on a vanity tour this summer". Reform UK's Robert Jenrick urged the Prime Minister to "scrap green levies and taxes on energy bills".
The tour also runs alongside continued pressure over the early release scheme for prisoners in England and Wales, after Justice Secretary Alex Norris apologised to the family of PC Andrew Harper because two of his killers remain eligible from next year. No 10 said on Saturday night that Burnham's position — that he cannot go further without risking the prison system's collapse — remained unchanged.
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