Rachel Reeves Takes Swipe At 'Dangerously Wrong' Andy Burnham

Rachel Reeves took a swipe at “dangerously wrong” Andy Burnham as she hit back at his criticisms of her economic policies.

The mayor of Manchester, who is making no secret of his ambition to replace Keir Starmer as prime minister, has called on the government to stop being “in hock the bond market”.

That was widely interpreted as a criticism of Reeves’ fiscal rules, which aim to limit public spending to stop government debt spiralling out of control.

A poll published today by the More in Common think-tank found that the public would prefer Burnham to Starmer as PM.

But in her speech to the Labour Party conference on Monday, the chancellor took a thinly-veiled swipe at Burnham.

She said: “There are critics out there who too readily forget the consequences of reckless choices.

“There are still people who peddle the idea that we can abandon economic responsibility. They are wrong, dangerously so.”

She also failed to rule out tax rises in the upcoming autumn Budget, and warning “harder choices” are to come.

Although the government is trying to draw attention away Burnham’s rebellion, More in Common found only a fifth of Brits (21%) say Starmer is still the best choice Labour has for prime minister – while 51% say someone else would be better.

In a head-to-head comparison between them, 27% of respondents said they would choose Burnham, 20% said they would choose Starmer, although the majority (53%) said they “don’t know” who would be better with the top job.

However, the polls also showed nearly half (49%) of Brits think it will take more than a leadership change to fix Labour’s woes.

More in Common’s executive director Luke Tryl said: “It’s clear that what the public really want is not so much a change of leader but a change of direction.”