Murphy Mo

Is it a good time to remind people that Britain successfully used price controls during WWII and that this, alongside other price targetting policies, are part of the reason Britain managed to sustain the war for so long?

EXCLUSIVE: Andy Burnham won’t commit to keeping Labour’s manifesto promises on tax and has opened the door to new tax rises if he becomes PM. His decision to back the current fiscal rules wins him a reprieve from markets, but it limits his options to fund policies like council house-building. It raises the prospect of tax hikes. Asked by Bloomberg if he is committed to Labour’s election manifesto pledges not to raise income tax, national insurance, VAT or corporation tax, his campaign declined to say so. They also didn’t rule out new taxes on wealth. Burnham’s spokesperson says he doesn’t want talk about tax policy during this by-election: “Andy is fully focused on working hard for every vote in Makerfield so he can represent them in Parliament. Andy is not standing on a national manifesto at this election; he is standing to make a difference for the people of Makerfield and to bring the change he has delivered in Greater Manchester to the national stage.” Burnham has recently called for the top rate of tax to be hiked to 50p and a council tax reevaluation to target the wealthy. “We have overtaxed labour and undertaxed wealth,” he said last year. But former Jeremy Hunt SpAd Adam Smith says wealth taxes don’t raise sufficient revenue and it is inevitable Burnham will have to look at the big taxes if he is going to implement bolder policies.

Reform UK will put Brexit at the heart of the Makerfield by-election campaign after interventions from Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting on rejoining the EU over the weekend They will link it directly to free movement - accusing Burnham of wanting to 'open the borders up to 500million people'. This is a seat where two-thirds of voters backed Brexit at the EU referendum Burnham told ITV News on Saturday that "in the long term there is a case for that [rejoining the EU]" but added that he was "not advocating that in this by-election". "In fact, what I am saying is focus now domestically. Britain has got to focus very much on the here and now and the issues that are affecting people" At Labour conference last year he said: 'Long term, I'm going to be honest, I'm going to say it, I want to rejoin it'. Burnham does not resile for that view, but it's not the case he wants to make now Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary and a friend of Burnham's, said this morning that nobody wants a return to Brexit wars. But the public interventions in favour of rejoining from Streeting and Burnham mean that it is likely to be a key issue