Burnham says government considering removing standing charges from gas bills
Kemi Badenoch thanks Burnham for finally backing Jackdaw. The Tories approved it in 2022, she says. And rather than right the leftie activists who tried to block it in court. Labour appointed one of them as energy secretary, she says.
She asks Burnham to lift the ban on new licence applications.
Burnham says he has made a decision on something the Tories “messed up”.
He says the government has made a bridge to the future, the transition to clean energy.
He says he has asked the chancellor and the energy secretary to consider if standing charges can be removed from gas bills. They will report back “at the earliest opportunity”.
Key events
Ellie Chowns, the parliamentary leader of the Greens, asked why Burnham was “pouring more fuel on the fire of climate breakdown” by approving Jackdaw. Why did he not accept expert evidence saying fossil fuels should stay in the ground?
Burnham said the UK still needs gas. He went on:
There’s a big difference, between an ideological approach, which I think is what [Chowns is] putting to the house, and a pragmatic approach, which is what I am announcing today.
Burnham ducks Lib Dem question about whether Elon Musk should have satellite licences restricted after ‘beyond the pale’ help for Putin
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, asked Burnham if he was going to wait until after the election until considering the case for joining the EU single market.
Burnham said at the UK-EU summit next month he would try to get a better deal covering food, energy and immigration. He went on:
If this house was to come together, it would give me the strongest position to go to that summit and get a good deal for.
Davey said, in the light of the PM’s position on Europe, “I feel that next week’s budget will not be the growth budget our country needs.”
He went on:
This week Ukraine’s defence system was seriously undermined by the US restricting access to Elon Musk’s Starlink system.
Musk says that the order came from the white House, but the Telegraph and The Wall Street Journal have revealed that must put the idea to Donald Trump himself.
Now, I understand the prime minister’s reluctance to criticise the present United States, but does he agree that directly aiding Putin in this way is beyond the pale? And will he work with European allies to prevent Elon Musk getting the licenses he wants? It would make our continent even more dependent on his satellite system.
Burnham said he had “concerns about any move that diminishes the military capability of Ukraine”. But he said the situation had to be handled carefully. The UK was working to help Ukraine, he said.
Burnham defends Palestine Action ban, saying decision taken after ‘rigorous and evidence-based process’
Claire Hanna (SDLP) asks about Sally Rooney’s books not being on sale in the UK, and invites Burnham to review the Palestine Action ban.
Burnham says:
When it comes to the prescription of Palestine Action, it followed a rigorous and evidence-based process that came before this house, endorsed by Parliament. The matter is alive, a legal case, so I won’t comment further than that.
Badenoch asks if Burnham will follow the Andy Haldane plan.
Burnham says “there are signs of growing strength in the British economy”. And he taunts the Tories over the mini budget.
Badenoch says Burnham is not going to cut welfare spending. Under his plans, it will go up.
She asks if he accepts his failure to cut borrowing is pushing up inflation.
Burnham again defends his social care policy. And, on welfare, he says he does not want to see people in their 20s out of work.
On inflation, he says:
[Badenoch] mentions inflation, though she may notice that there is a situation ongoing in the Middle East where we don’t have full control.
But I can of that situation … the fundamentals of the British economy are getting stronger and stronger under this government. We will take the right long term decisions, and she should wait for the budget, and she will see that laid out in this house.
Burnham defends taking action on ‘small things’, like train noise, but says he’s taking ‘big decisions’ too
Badenoch says she has read the IMF report and it has downgrades the UK’s growth forecast.
We are spending more on interest payments than we do on schools, the army and the police combined. Meanwhile, the prime minister is worrying about loud music on trains. This is not serious.
She asks Burnham if he will cut welfare spending.
Burnham says he cut spending on his first day in office, on digital ID.
He goes on:
She asks about the big decisions. I want to come directly back to what she’s saying. I’m not going to apologise for doing the small things that help people have better lives. I’m not going to apologise for that.
But I also take the big decisions that they have avoided for many years and let me go directly to one, directly to one social care.
I grasped the nettle in a way that nobody on their side ever has, and I made a difficult spending decision to lay a path towards a National Care Service.
Have they had the time to read the Covid inquiry report yesterday about the appalling state of social care as it went in to the pandemic? The hundreds of thousands of British people who suffered as a result of that, the lives that were lost.
I need no lectures from the other side about taking tough decisions on social care.
Badenoch says the national debt has reached £3trn. And she raises the criticism of his economic policies from Andy Haldane in the FT yesterday. What is the PM doing to get borrowing down?
Burnham says Badenoch is showing why the Tories “got those decisions wrong”.
Because she didn’t and they didn’t give any regard to our climate obligations. These things have to be considered in the round.
And he says the IMF has praised the UK’s record on deficit reduction.
Badenoch asks Burnham to accept that every barrel of oil from the North Sea is one that we don’t need to buy from Putin.
Burnham says again she is asking him “to take further decisions that she, messed up when she was in, in government”.
He says these are quasi-judicial decisions.
Burnham says government considering removing standing charges from gas bills
Kemi Badenoch thanks Burnham for finally backing Jackdaw. The Tories approved it in 2022, she says. And rather than right the leftie activists who tried to block it in court. Labour appointed one of them as energy secretary, she says.
She asks Burnham to lift the ban on new licence applications.
Burnham says he has made a decision on something the Tories “messed up”.
He says the government has made a bridge to the future, the transition to clean energy.
He says he has asked the chancellor and the energy secretary to consider if standing charges can be removed from gas bills. They will report back “at the earliest opportunity”.
Alex McIntyre (Lab) asks about constituents asked to pay £50,000 for a lift repair when they bought a home having been told a guarantee would pay for repairs like this. He asks when leasehold reform will help people like this.
Burnham says the leasehold reform legislation is coming.
Clive Jones (Lib Dem) says too many people have their cancers missed. He asks Burnham if he will suppport Jones’s private member’s bill on cancer reporting.
Burnham says the government has a national cancer plan that is delivering the improvements Jones is seeking.
Andy Burnham starts by saying he is welcoming the Sultan of Oman today. He also refers to Aberfan, saying he visited the village on Monday and heard how the injustices that community suffered at the hands of the state “still hurt”.
Lindsay Hoyle, the speaker, starts by saying it is the 60th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster. He says he remembers hearing about this as a child, and he says it was very moving to meet one of the survivors recently.
Most Labour MPs seem to be either supportive of the Jackdaw decision or, if they are opposed to it, willing to keep their views private.
One exception is the leftwing Richard Burgon. In a post on social media, he says:
An absolutely terrible decision on Jackdaw.
It will do nothing to lower people’s energy bills or improve our energy security.
Investing in renewable energy is the way to do that.
But this does not mean that Labour MPs would also approve a decision to greenlight the Rosebank oilfield. That would be much more contentious, because its carbon impact would be far worse.
Total UK government debt hits £3tn for first time while inflation jumps to highest in nearly a year
In the light of her speech yesterday, it would be surprising if Kemi Badenoch does not ask about government spending. As Heather Stewart reports, the Treasury ran a higher than expected budget deficit of £24.5bn last month – and total government debt is estimated to have hit £3tn for the first time.
Julia Kollewe has more on the business live blog.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2026/oct/21/jackdaw-gasfield-labour-andy-burnham-zack-polanski-uk-politics-latest-news
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