Andy Burnham will face an online question session on Friday after hinting he would be prepared to hike taxes for out-of-town businesses if he becomes prime minister later this month.
The Makerfield MP is effectively the prime minister-in-waiting as the only declared candidate to replace Sir Keir Starmer as Labour leader.
In his first interview since Sir Keir announced his resignation, Mr Burnham said there was room for movement on tax despite pledging to keep Labour’s 2024 manifesto commitments not to increase workers’ income tax, national insurance or VAT rates.
The former Greater Manchester mayor will face questions from users of the Reddit forum on Friday afternoon.
For someone who could be in No 10 on July 20, Mr Burnham has received little scrutiny over his policy platform. He refused to take questions from journalists following his one major speech of the leadership campaign so far and has given only one interview, on Thursday evening with LBC.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has criticised Mr Burnham’s approach, accusing him on Friday of “running away from being asked questions” by the media.
She told reporters on a visit to Thirsk, North Yorkshire: “I wouldn’t use Reddit as a way to show I was open to scrutiny. I think he can do a bit better than that.”
Mr Burnham, in a social media post recorded at Warrington station after returning from London late on Thursday night, said: “People do want a new direction in politics. A new way of doing things. More doing, less arguing. More power put into places like this.
“I’ll set more details out about that in the coming days”.
He told LBC there was room within the manifesto’s restrictions to increase taxes on warehouses to help high street businesses such as pubs.
“I stick by the manifesto and the promises that it made,” he said.
“So let me be absolutely clear about that but there is some room within that manifesto for movement on tax.
“So, if you take business rates, for instance, I believe there is a case for higher business rates on warehouses and the major developments we see on the outskirts of our cities, so that we can cut business rates for pubs, and I’ve proposed a 20% cut and to lift some high street businesses out of business rates altogether.”
He suggested firms that brought a “social benefit” to town centres would benefit from the tax break.
In an attempt to reassure the markets that he can be trusted with the nation’s finances, he said: “I was in the Treasury, I ran the Department of Health, and… it was tight but we had a very healthy set of finances.
“I’ve run Greater Manchester, the fastest-growing city region in the country, for a decade and you can’t make it the fastest-growing city region in the country without strong business confidence in what you’re doing.”
But he ruled out making “crude cuts” to the welfare bill to help balance the books.
He promised more assistance for young people to get into work, with a greater focus on vocational education, adding: “I will not defend an education system that is overly focused on the university route and does not lay out paths to technical qualifications for our young people.”
He added that “if you build more council homes, you can bring down the housing benefit bill”.
Mr Burnham said he has not yet decided who will be his chancellor of the exchequer – “I haven’t made those decisions, and deliberately not” – and defended his decision not to take questions following Monday’s policy speech.
“I didn’t answer questions, and some people criticise me for that, but again, I’m challenging some of the prevailing culture, where it immediately will go into a Westminster obsession,” he said.
