Burnham Vows To Bring Back Hope To Britain By Ending 'Politics As Usual'

Andy Burnham will vow to be honest with voters about his mission to change Britain and declare that “politics as usual has taken the country backwards”.

The prime minister is expected to unveil his plan to tackle social care, youth unemployment, and bring abut greater public control of energy, water and housing in his first Labour conference speech as party leader on Tuesday.

Burnham will vow to give voters hope in the future by tackling problems head on and “saying the things politicians usually avoid”.

The PM will say: “We can’t carry on as we are. Politics as usual has taken Britain backwards.

“More of the same isn’t good enough and isn’t going to get us where we need to be.”

The PM is expected to promise to build a “Britain where people feel the country has their back again”.

Since becoming PM in July, Burnham has already announced a series of cost of living pledges, like capping bus fares at £2, taking VAT off electricity bills and setting up a “help to buy” scheme to help young people get on the property ladder.

The prime minister will use his platform on Tuesday to promise to open an “honest conversation” with the public and tackle issues which he claims have been ignored for too long within Westminster.

Burnham will say: “Hope comes from honesty and from saying the things politicians usually avoid.”

Taking aim at the “flawed thinking of the last 40 years”, the PM will outline “a more serious prospectus for Britain than people have been offered in a generation”.

“I accept people will not agree with every part of it, but I believe it can turn Britain around,” he will say.

Burnham will also announce plans for a new publicly-owned “Great British Grid” to bring down UK energy costs to European levels within a decade.

The move will give “more public control” to help reform the “broken energy market,” he will say.

HuffPost UK understands the PM will have a group of representatives from his Makerfield constituency in the crowd as he gives his speech.

It’s part of the prime minister’s promise to put his own local constituents, who only elected him to be the local MP in June, at the heart of his plan for government – a framework he called the “Makerfield test”.

Burnham’s premiership has given Labour a boost in the polls, though survey suggest the party would still fall short of an absolute majority if a general election were to take place today.

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