Kemi Badenoch has predicted Andy Burnham could call an early general election to secure a mandate to raise taxes.
Speaking to GB News, the Conservative leader insisted that her party was “ready” to challenge the Prime Minister in a national contest.
Mrs Badenoch noted that Labour continues to enjoy a 160-seat parliamentary majority, which in theory would allow a Government to enact a major legislative agenda.
However, she argued that Mr Burnham had spent his first two months in office without making key decisions on defence, welfare or North Sea oil and gas.
“I do think that Andy Burnham wants to call a general election, because he is yet another politician who doesn’t know what he wants to do in terms of running the country, but they just want to fight an election,” the Tory leader said.
“Elections without plans do not work.”
She claimed the only legislative reason for Mr Burnham to seek to refresh Labour’s mandate would be to pave the way for tax rises.
“So what would he be calling an election for? Only one thing, and that is raising taxes,” she said.
Kemi Badenoch has predicted Andy Burnham could call an early general election to secure a mandate to raise taxes
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GB NEWS
Ms Badenoch said she was “very happy” to fight an election on the issue of defence spending, accusing Mr Burnham of prioritising welfare over national security.
“I know the British people are full of common sense and I know which side they will take,” she added.
“Labour thinks tax is the answer to everything,” the Conservative leader said.
“Quite often you raise tax and unintended consequences occur. That is what I think will happen with this new tax on families, this tourism tax.”
‘Labour thinks tax is the answer to everything,’ the Conservative leader slammed
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PA
Mr Burnham is set to give mayors the power to impose unlimited taxes on tourists, including an uncapped “overnight visitor levy” on guests at hotels, bed and breakfasts, and holiday lets.
“This is a tax on families. What this will mean is that families who decide to come, for instance, to the British Museum, where I’m speaking from today, to look at the Bayeux Tapestry, won’t stay overnight. They won’t do it.
“It’ll be bad for the local economies. Remember when Labour said they would put a tax on education and there would be loads more money coming in to spend on teachers.
“What happened? Private schools closed. The children went to state schools. We didn’t get any more teachers, and it was a big mess.”
Mrs Badenoch said the Tories were ‘ready’ to challenge the Prime Minister in a national contest
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GB NEWS
Looking ahead to a potential early election, Mrs Badenoch insisted the Conservatives were ready despite currently trailing Reform and Labour in the polls.
“I am having lots of people who went to Reform, including donors, coming back,” she claimed, adding: “There is only one party that has common sense that actually got a plan to get Britain working and can unite the country, and that’s the Conservative Party.”
The Conservative leader said she had assembled a new shadow cabinet that she intended to take into an election, adding that she was prepared to challenge Mr Burnham to go to the country if he failed to increase defence spending.
“If he won’t fund our defence to do it, then he should call an election because the defence of the realm is a government’s first duty,” she said.