[Abernathy]

It’s looking good for king of t’ north.

[Tubby Isaacs]

How much free money has he handed out since the last time I checked on him?

[Oboogie]

Apart from saying he'll cut Welfare, has he given any details of how he's going to fund the Defence shortfall?

[Tubby Isaacs]

Assume the same as Starmer- "salami slicing" budgets, mostly capital ones. Which isn't very good.

Burnham seems very sure that social security cuts play well in Makerfield. He's probably right. Maybe he can get it past backbenchers by sticking it to Thames Water as well. I'd guess he'll restrict the access to PIP of some mental health conditions.

[mattomac]

Burnham's lost bluesky.

In an exclusive interview with The i Paper ahead of Thursday’s Makerfield by-election, Burnham was unequivocal that the pensions guarantee was not up for negotiation – despite pledging to cut welfare to fund defence spending.
“The manifesto commitment holds” on the triple lock, he said, warning that to “tear up the manifesto commitments on the triple lock” would be “a very damaging thing to do.”
However, Burnham did not spell out whether he would look to maintain the policy beyond the current parliament, which is due to end by 2029 at the latest. This is consistent with the current government position on the future of the policy.
His victory in Makerfield would be seen as a potential mandate for a tilt at No 10. Burnham told the BBC’s Question Time audience last week that he would seek to enter any leadership contest and his interventions on national policy are widely interpreted as part of his pitch to become prime minister.

https://archive.ph/2026.06.14-113547/ht ... 0-6713.301

Well there is fuck all else in the welfare budget to cut.

[Tubby Isaacs]

He'll likely do something like what Reeves-Starmer tried with PIP. He'll back his superior political skills to get backbenchers onside. And he'll be putting faith in something like this.

Burnham has told the i in an interview that he would like to see more devolution of employment support policy, and potentially, to regions. In her write-up, Caroline Wheeler says:
[Burnham’s] prescription is to hand far more power over welfare reforms to city regions like his own. Burnham draws on Greater Manchester’s experience of running devolved employment support programmes.
Since 2014, the city region has pioneered its “Working Well” model, which combines employment support with health, skills and housing services and relies on dedicated key workers rather than a standardised national approach. The programme was one of the first examples of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) devolving control over employment support to a city region.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Wasn't this one of Andy's?

I suppose he can do something with thresholds, but I don't think he mentioned that. I've zero confidence he's thought about it beyond walk around Manchester talking to some mates from hospitality who've moaned about Rachel Reeves.