Burnham Admits His First Budget Wasn’t the One He Wanted, Two Days After Healey Delivered It

News | By Matt, Editor

Two days. That is how long Andy Burnham stood behind his first Budget before admitting it was not the one he wanted. “The room for manoeuvre wasn’t what I would have hoped it to be,” the Prime Minister told ITV on Friday, in an interview marking his first 100 days in office. (Guardian, 30 October 2026; Independent, 30 October 2026)

Asked whether it was the Budget he had wanted to deliver, he said: “I don’t think any prime minister and chancellor would say that, because a budget is by definition a very difficult thing.” He added that “the volatility of things means you just can’t necessarily deliver the budget that in an ideal world you would want to deliver.” (Guardian, 30 October 2026)

It was his own Government’s Budget, delivered by his own Chancellor, John Healey, on Wednesday 28 October. And it landed with national debt above £3 trillion for the first time and the tax burden heading for a post-war record. (ONS; OBR, October 2026)

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Key facts

• The Budget: Healey set it out on Wednesday 28 October. Its headline help was a £2.6bn Household Energy Payment of £100 for up to 20 million homes in council tax bands A to D in England, from January. (HM Treasury)
• What Burnham wanted: he said he would have liked to go further, including with higher energy support payments, but blamed outside events such as the war in Iran, which has pushed up borrowing costs. (Guardian)
• The manifesto: asked if he would have written Labour’s 2024 manifesto the same way, Burnham said: “Well, no is the answer to that question.” (Independent)

Blaming the manifesto he stood on

Burnham said he was hemmed in not only by world events but by the manifesto that won Labour its 2024 landslide. That document promised: “Labour will not increase taxes on working people, which is why we will not increase National Insurance, the basic, higher, or additional rates of Income Tax, or VAT.” It also ruled out rejoining the EU, the single market or the customs union. (Labour manifesto, 2024; Independent)

“If you’re asking me a very direct question, if I had held the pen on the current Labour manifesto, would I have written it exactly like it is? Well, no is the answer to that question,” he said. “Obviously, when the time comes, I would seek my own mandate.” (Guardian, 30 October 2026)

That pledge has already worn thin. After Rachel Reeves’s Budget last November, the fact-checking charity Full Fact rated Labour’s promise not to raise taxes on working people as “Not kept”, because the extended freeze on income tax and National Insurance thresholds means people will pay more from April 2028. (Full Fact, 28 November 2025) Healey’s Budget keeps those thresholds frozen until 2031. Our breakdown of what he announced is in Budget 2026 explained.

From ’40 years of neoliberalism’ to a £100 payment

Burnham came to office promising an end to “40 years of neoliberalism”, with higher taxes on wealth and nationalisation of major utilities. So far, the Guardian noted, he has made a series of smaller announcements, including tax cuts on energy bills, lower bus fares and fines for playing music out loud on phones on public transport. (Guardian, 30 October 2026)

On Wednesday Healey told MPs he faced “global economic storms”. “Those are the storms we face. We cannot wish them away,” he said. (Hansard, 28 October 2026) Two days later, his boss told the country the result was not what he had hoped for. A YouGov poll before his 100th day found that 12% of those asked had expected him to be good and been let down. (Independent, 23 October 2026; BBN)

“Is that it?”

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said on Wednesday: “Most people in the country, listening to that budget, will be thinking to themselves ‘is that it?'” (Guardian, 30 October 2026) Reform UK leader Nigel Farage called it “timid” and said: “Britain is broke.” (Reform UK, 28 October 2026) Reform’s Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick called it a “nothing burger”. (Telegraph, 28 October 2026) We reported Farage’s full response in ‘Britain is broke’: Farage savages Healey’s Budget.

Welfare: still no number

Burnham also ducked a question on how far he would cut the welfare bill. “I come at it a different way. I want to talk about: how many people am I going to help into work?” he said. (Independent, 30 October 2026) He told ITV his plans would come in the coming months, after reviews by Alan Milburn and Stephen Timms, and would not involve “brutal cuts”. “I don’t actually want to see anyone in their 20s on benefits,” he added. (Guardian, 30 October 2026)

What happens next

• The Milburn and Timms welfare reports are due in November, with a welfare White Paper promised before the end of the year. (HM Treasury)
• £100 energy payments are due from January 2027, and the higher bank surcharge runs from 1 January 2027 to 31 March 2028. (HM Treasury)
• Tax on savings and property income rises from 6 April 2027, and fuel duty returns to pre-2022 levels on 1 July 2027. (HMRC, via our explainer)

Our view

This section is opinion.

Two days. Nobody forced the choices in this Budget on the Prime Minister. It was his Government’s Budget, with £14bn more going on debt interest and £10bn for Ukraine, as we set out on Wednesday, while handing households a one-off £100 and squeezing savers, landlords and family firms.

Blaming the manifesto he campaigned on, and the war, and the markets, is the excuse of a man who wants the credit for being radical without the blame for what radical would cost. We know what “radical” means to the Left: wealth taxes and nationalisation, paid for by the same taxpayers already facing a record tax burden. And when he says he did not write the manifesto that ruled out rejoining the EU, Brexit voters should take note, as they did when he gagged his Cabinet on Europe until the next Parliament.

The welfare bill is left for another report, the debt keeps climbing, and the man in charge already sounds disappointed. If even Burnham does not believe in this Budget, why should anyone else?

FAQ

When was the 2026 Budget?

Chancellor John Healey delivered it on Wednesday 28 October 2026. Burnham’s ITV interview aired on Friday 30 October.

Who gets the £100 energy payment?

Up to 20 million households in council tax bands A to D in England, from January 2027. (HM Treasury)

Will Burnham call an early election?

He says not. “I’ll keep ruling it out,” he told ITV, despite speculation that he could go to the country in May next year. (Independent)

Sources

• The Guardian, Kiran Stacey, 30 October 2026: Andy Burnham admits he would have liked more radical first budget
• The Independent, David Maddox, 30 October 2026: Burnham admits first Budget was not as radical as he wanted
• The Independent, David Maddox, 23 October 2026: Voters verdict on Andy Burnham’s first 100 days
• HM Treasury: Budget 2026; OBR: Economic and fiscal outlook, October 2026; ONS: Public sector finances, September 2026
• Hansard, 28 October 2026: Financial Statement and Budget Report
• Labour Party: 2024 manifesto; Full Fact, 28 November 2025: Government Tracker verdict on Labour’s tax pledges
• Reform UK, 28 October 2026: Farage and Jenrick reaction; The Telegraph, 28 October 2026: Budget 2026 live
• Main image: Prime Minister Andy Burnham at the Cabinet table in 10 Downing Street, 20 July 2026. Photo: Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street, via Wikimedia Commons, Open Government Licence v3.0 (cropped).