Pubs and farmers are taxed unfairly in UK, says Burnham

Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester Mayor, declared that Britain’s pubs and farms were being targeted unfairly as he vowed to reverse Labour’s damaging tax rises.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Burnham vowed he would “look again” at the Government’s inheritance tax (IHT) raid on farmers if he were to become prime minister.

The Greater Manchester Mayor, who will challenge Sir Keir Starmer for the Labour leadership if he wins the Makerfield by-election on June 18, also backed The Telegraph’s Save our Pubs campaign and pledged to cut business rates for pubs by 20 percent.

Speaking at The Holts Arms in Makerfield, Burham said the Treasury needed to “listen to small businesses more”, adding: “As I’ve gone around in this by-election, the common refrain is that things are just too hard and close to the edge of viability.

“More needs to be done to take the pressure off and just give them that bit of breathing space, so the announcement I’m making today is very much designed to do that.”

Promising to make a future Labour government more “pro-business”, he said: “I am willing to be honest about where we have fallen short – and say that my party has got this wrong in government.”

Small businesses have been hit by a series of tax rises since Sir Keir and Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, took power in July 2024.

Reeves increased employers’ National Insurance (NI) in November, which, combined with an increase in the minimum wage, has made it harder for pubs and shops to hire new staff. A business rates overhaul is revaluing properties and has ended pandemic-era relief.



Andy Burnham declared that Britain’s pubs and farms were being targeted unfairly as he vowed to reverse Labour’s damaging tax rises.

In an interview with The Telegraph on Friday, Mr Burnham vowed he would “look again” at the Government’s inheritance tax (IHT) raid on farmers if he were to become prime minister.

The Greater Manchester Mayor, who will challenge Sir Keir Starmer for the Labour leadership if he wins the Makerfield by-election on June 18, also backed The Telegraph’s Save our Pubs campaign and pledged to cut business rates for pubs by 20 per cent.

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Speaking at The Holts Arms in Makerfield, Mr Burham said the Treasury needed to “listen to small businesses more”, adding: “As I’ve gone around in this by-election, the common refrain is that things are just too hard and close to the edge of viability.

“More needs to be done to take the pressure off and just give them that bit of breathing space, so the announcement I’m making today is very much designed to do that.”

Promising to make a future Labour government more “pro-business”, he said: “I am willing to be honest about where we have fallen short – and say that my party has got this wrong in government.”

Small businesses have been hit by a series of tax rises since Sir Keir and Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, took power in July 2024.

Reeves increased employers’ National Insurance (NI) in November, which, combined with an increase in the minimum wage, has made it harder for pubs and shops to hire new staff. A business rates overhaul is revaluing properties and has ended pandemic-era relief.

The Government announced a 15 per cent business rates cut for 2026-27 in January, and under Reeves’s plan, pubs will see their rates rise in line with inflation from 2027 to 2029.

Burnham pledged to provide an additional 20 per cent business rate cut from 2027-28 at a cost of about £100 million.

Joking that he was “not known for backing every Telegraph campaign”, Mr Burnham said pubs brought people together at a time when Britain was not “as connected” as it should be, adding: “I back this [campaign] 100 per cent.”

But he declined to commit to reversing the increases to NI contributions and the minimum wage.

On Friday evening, Burnham told BBC Newsnight that he was “sympathetic” to reversing the NI rise and would consider calls to do so.

He also said the Government needed to do more to help British farmers.

Labour’s 20 per cent inheritance tax rate on agricultural assets worth more than £2.5 million came into force in April and has been blamed for record farm and rural business closures.

There are also concerns that almost all farmers will end up paying IHT because of the costs of machinery, land and crops.

Wes Streeting, the former health secretary who has said he will run against Sir Keir for the Labour leadership, said last week that his party had “let down” farmers in the past two years.

When asked if he agreed with Streeting, Burnham responded: “I personally have heard from farmers. I met the National Farmers Union here in the North West shortly after it was introduced. And yeah, I think that does need looking at again.

“I understand where large entities might buy a farm for wider commercial purposes. But for family farms, I think we do need to hear their voice, and we do need to revisit that proposal.”

Burnham used a BBC Question Time appearance on Thursday to confirm he would join Mr Streeting in running for the leadership if he succeeded in returning to the Commons.

Asked on Friday if he would serve under Burnham, Streeting told the News Agents podcast: “Of course I would.”

But he added: “Well, I’d like Andy Burnham to serve in my government.”

Burnham also declared that Britain’s welfare bill must fall, in the face of an ongoing row in Labour over the benefits budget.

Last July, Sir Keir was forced into a humiliating about-turn on planned £5bn cuts to Universal Credit after a rebellion by more than 100 of his backbenchers.

The final tranche of the Mandelson files, released this week, revealed that Pat McFadden, now the Work and Pensions Secretary, complained to Lord Mandelson that Labour cared only about who it could tax to pay more in benefits.

McFadden said every meeting he had with Labour MPs concerned the question: “Who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others?”

The welfare bill is set to rise by £74bn in the next four years to reach £406bn by 2030, which critics including Sir Tony Blair, the former prime minister, have called “unsustainable”.

Asked if he thought the welfare bill should be reduced, Burnham replied: “Yes, I do, and I’ll give you a really straight answer on that. I don’t think it can be right to have a situation where people in their 20s are routinely on benefits, and I think Alan Milburn’s interim report is really powerful in this regard.

“But the thing I would say is it’s not so much what people get through the benefits system, it’s how support is delivered. And our experience in Greater Manchester is that the DWP approach doesn’t actually help people into work, it doesn’t give them the support that they need.”

Having worked as a barman, a football pools collector and a paper boy in his youth, Burnham said Saturday jobs and part-time work were important for young people as their first contact with the labour market.

He said: “I did all of that, and I just think it’s an important part of growing up. I also think, though, that you know young people need support in this day and age, and I do support a fair wage for young people in the workplace.”

Mr Burnham insisted that he supported Reeves’s decision to increase the minimum wage, although he would not be drawn on whether to keep the rise in employers’ NI she announced at her second Budget last year.

Responding to Burnham’s leadership ambitions on Friday, Sir Keir told LBC: “I’ve said over and over again I’m not going to walk away. We won an election victory in 2024 with a five-year mandate.

“We’re only two years into that and so I’m not going to walk away from that, I’m very clear about that.”

Sir Keir added that Burnham had “a lot of talent” but warned him against “plunging into an internal fight in the Labour Party, which will distract us from the job that we’re elected to do”.

The second poll of the Makerfield by-election put Labour at 49 per cent and Reform UK on 39 per cent, with Restore Britain, Reform’s rival Right-wing party, on 7 percent.

If elected on Thursday, June 18, Burnham would be able to trigger a leadership contest, if he were able to gather the signatures of 81 supportive Labour MPs.

-The Telegraph