{"id":724273,"date":"2026-08-02T10:58:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T10:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/724273\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T10:58:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T10:58:14","slug":"burnham-pledges-more-cost-of-living-support-as-chancellor-says-public-being-taken-for-a-ride-on-food-and-petrol-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/724273\/","title":{"rendered":"Burnham pledges more cost of living support as chancellor says public being \u2018taken for a ride\u2019 on food and petrol prices"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Andy Burnham has promised more cost-of-living support<\/a> is on the way as his chancellor<\/a> vows to stop the public being \u201ctaken for a ride\u201d on food and petrol prices<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The prime minister vowed to do \u201cwhatever I can\u201d to \u201ctake a little bit of pressure down\u201d after hearing voters talk about \u201chow tough life was\u201d on the doorstep.<\/p>\n

It comes after a Mr Burnham began his tenure in Downing Street<\/a> with a spate of measures aimed at reducing costs for families, including a cut in VAT on energy bills and reduced business rates for pubs,<\/p>\n

“People on whose doors I was knocking only about five, six weeks ago… They did get over to me how tough life was,\u201d he told the Mirror. \u201cCan’t go for drink anymore. Can’t take the kids out. Not having a holiday this year.<\/p>\n

“I heard those type of things being said throughout the campaign, and those comments were still ringing in my ears as I arrived in Downing Street.”<\/p>\n

\"AndyAndy Burnham speaks during a visit to a family centre in Sheffield (Getty)<\/p>\n

The prime minister said \u201coutrageously\u201d high rail fares were \u201cin my sights\u201d, but added he would not give people \u201cfalse promises\u201d.<\/p>\n

“It’s about looking across the piece,” he said. “Not giving people false promises, but being honest with them and saying, “Well, I’ll do whatever I can in all of these different areas just to take a little bit of pressure down”.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, his chancellor John Healey said he will be \u201cwatching closely\u201d to protect the public from price gouging at the petrol pump and in supermarkets as the war in Iran continues to hit prices. <\/p>\n

Mr Healey conceded that \u201cwe can\u2019t completely stop the squeeze\u201d on families and businesses, amid prime minister Andy Burnham\u2019s efforts to show he will focus on tackling the cost of living since taking office two weeks ago.<\/p>\n

However, he signalled he would be ready to intervene to protect consumers from unfair price rises at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll be watching closely for any suggestions that customers are being taken for a ride at the pump or the till.<\/p>\n

\u201cCompanies\u2019 willingness to work with the Government throughout this crisis has been positive, and there has been no significant evidence of so-called price gouging, but I want to be blunt in reassuring the public that our regulators have the powers to clamp down on it if it happens,\u201d Mr Healey wrote in The Telegraph.<\/p>\n

\"JohnJohn Healey (Stefan Rousseau\/PA) (PA Wire)<\/p>\n

The start of Mr Burnham\u2019s premiership has seen him announce a succession of measures aimed at alleviating cost-of-living pressures, such as a cut in VAT on energy bills and capping bus fares at \u00a32 throughout 2027.<\/p>\n

The raft of measures Mr Burnham has unveiled, including cutting business rates for pubs and an expansion of technical training in schools, are likely to require additional spending.<\/p>\n

Mr Healey promised that his first budget would be \u201cbuilt on fiscal discipline\u201d as he revealed this week that it would take place on 28 October.<\/p>\n

He and the prime minister have written to the cabinet to make clear there is no new money coming for the fresh pledges, he told The Times.<\/p>\n

Departments need to be ready to \u201cshift funding away from unproductive or legacy programmes that no longer reflect this administration\u2019s priorities\u201d, he wrote in the letter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":724274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-724273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=724273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/724274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=724273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=724273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=724273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}