Burnham's Early Election?

A 'ten-year plan' that might be a manifesto.

Hear me out.

Yes I know lots of you will be thinking that Andy Burnham will now inevitably try and cling on until the last possible moment.

Of course a 2029 General Election could well be what we get.

But I still think there is a good chance that Burnham will go early. And there’s increasing evidence pointing to this possibility.

Remember, Burnham came in straight away talking about a ‘ten-year plan’ that he will unveil later this year.

Why would he not just announce the details now? His team have certainly had the time to prepare.

Perhaps because this could be the real plan.

Front load policy announcements now, seek a honeymoon period poll bounce and then announce the ten year plan - a manifesto - at Labour Conference.

That could then coincide with Burnham calling a snap election to actually seek a mandate for this.

After all, any ten-year plan is going to go way outside of Labour’s 2024 manifesto.

Certainly what we’ve seen so far are a flurry of expensive policy announcements from Burnham - without any detail on how they’ll be funded.

The next budget is due later this year, October/November time. Calling an early election would also avoid having to deliver an unpopular budget first.

That could be very convenient for the new Labour Prime Minister when you examine his flurry of early commitments.

Already we’ve heard of £340million being spent towards ending rough sleeping.

An £850million policy aimed at cutting electricity bills.

A £2 cap on bus fares that could cost £300million per year.

Plus a 20% cut in business rates for pubs, clubs and music venues. But only due to kick in from next April. Interesting timing, isn’t it?

And to reiterate, there seems to be precious little detail as to how any of this will be paid for.

The reality is we’re looking at massively hiked taxes under Labour. Yet again.

So does the new Government hope that this flurry of announcements deliver that poll bounce and allow them to call an election before they have to commit to huge tax rises in a budget?

Perhaps I’m reading too much into some of this and as usual, politicians in Government will bottle it and hang on in office until the very last possible moment.

However, we know that there is already massive public demand for a General Election. That pressure will continue to build.

And if Burnham’s team were planning to call an election within months, this sort of political choreography would be exactly what they’d do. Wouldn’t it?