Burnham says Labour ‘lost its way in the last decade’ and criticises mansion tax plan

Andy Burnham has said that Labour ‘lost its way in the last decade’.

Burnham, one of four people in the running to be Labour’s next leader, said that in recent years ‘a sense has built up that we aren’t in favour of people getting on. That is toxic. We need to get back to communicating simple policies that will make a real difference to people.’

In particular, he has criticised Labour’s plans to implement a mansion tax, which would have applied to homes worth more than £2million.

In an interview with the Mail on Sunday, the shadow health secretary was critical about the message he believes this policy sent to the electorate: ‘There wasn’t a great debate about it. The mansion tax made voters think Labour was against anyone who succeeded and made money. It felt spiteful and went against the grain.’

He went on to say that mum was sceptical of the policy: ‘My mum picked up the phone to me and said, “This never works, people don’t like it, it sounds like the 1970s.”

He also criticised Labour’s pledge to build 200,000 homes a year before 2020:

‘We said we’d build 200,000 homes. It’s a massive but meaningless figure. We’ve been abstract rather than framing it as something that matters to somebody, that means something.

‘My ambition is to enable all people who want a ladder into home ownership to have one. It’s a strong instinct in most British people.’

However, Burnham said earlier in the week that the last manifesto was one of the best he has worked on in recent years. He emphasised that he isn’t criticising Ed Miliband, praising the former Labour leader for his commitment to clamp down on zero-hours contracts.

On Wednesday Burnham is going to outline his housing plans. He will commit to accelerating home building programmes so that the age at which people can buy their first home (which is currently 37 without help from their parents) is lower.

He will also say the country must adopt programmes such as  ‘Rent-to-Own’. Under this plan, which has been implemented in certain areas of the country, people can get onto the housing ladder without a deposit, as the share of their rental payment goes towards owning their home.