Andy Burnham plans to stay at No. 10 for at least a year, says key partner

One of the biggest headaches facing the Burnham government is the welfare budget.

A A major review of Personal Independence Payments (Pip) in England and Wales, published on Thursday, found the disability benefit to be “not fit for purpose”. And it needs a fundamental change.

Opposition parties, particularly the Conservatives, have called for cuts to the welfare budget to support defense spending.

Sir Kerr tried to push through welfare reforms to cut £5bn a year from the budget, but was forced to make major changes after a backbench rebellion, led by Haig and others.

He told the BBC that the welfare bill was “draining massively” but the cuts the Labor government was trying to push through would not bring down the welfare bill permanently because it would increase costs “elsewhere in the system”.

Among Burnham’s key policies is the devolution of power from Westminster to regional authorities – and he has suggested he could move decision-making away from the Treasury.

“The Treasury is omnipotent and I think it has a lot of power over other public policies,” Haig said.

But she added: “I think that while Andy has a clear plan for some of it, because he’s thinking so deeply about turning the state around again, I don’t think we’ll have time to dismantle the Treasury in two and a half years because it’s going to drag everything down and it’s going to be a big distraction.”

Haig’s resignation in November 2024 was the first from Sir Keir Starmer’s government and she pleaded guilty to fraud a decade ago.

In the year She told police her work cellphone was mugged in 2013, but later learned it hadn’t been taken.

She was granted conditional discharge following an incident that occurred before she became a member of parliament.

Haig told Nick Robinson that she had revealed her conviction to Sir Keir when he was in Labor opposition.

She said the prime minister had initially supported her when the story was published in The Times, before her then chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, tendered her resignation.

Asked if Sir Kerr’s message in the summer of 2024 was too bleak after coming to power, Haig said: “We were elected on a mandate for change, and when we came in everyone was hopeful.

“There was excitement and aspiration for a changed country, and the government immediately turned around and said it couldn’t be done.

“We couldn’t recover from that, no matter how many resets (Sir) Keir Starmer and the rest of the government tried, he couldn’t get himself out of there.”