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Lucy Fisher: Financial Times Whitehall Editor on Andy Burnham becoming the new UK Prime Minister · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Let's go to the UK starmers out Andy Burnham's in.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: I have just come from Bookingham Palace where I have
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: accepted his Majesty, the King's invitation to form a government.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: It requires my generation of politicians to raise our game
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: and rise to the new challenge.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Now he has just announced John Healy, who was Starmer's
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Defense sectory, you know, the guy that quit and then
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: got replaced, He has been announced as his chancellor. Joining
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: us live as Lucy Fisher Financial Times at Whitehall Editor, Lucy,
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  Speaker 1: was that a surprise?
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  Speaker 3: Well, it was a surprise because as recently as last
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: week it appeared that Shabnamahmood, the Home Secretary, was nailed
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: on to be Chancellor, but that news had sparked a
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: backlash against her and her politics. She comes from the
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: right of the party, whereas John Eally combines a background
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: as a t unionist with new Labor credentials and therefore
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: means he's perhaps better able to straddle the political divide
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: in the party as Burnham seeks to unite labor and
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  Speaker 3: move forward.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: What does it do because I note that, as you know,
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  Speaker 1: every time Burnham out Inder's mouth, they yield on tenure
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  Speaker 1: Guildsworth started to rise. What do you think the announcement
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: of John Heely will do for the markets?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I suspect there will be fairly little movement. He's
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  Speaker 3: a pretty sober and serious character. He has some standing
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  Speaker 3: on the world stage as a former defense secretary. Clearly,
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: you know he quit last months as from that role,
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  Speaker 3: demanding that the UK government needed to move to spend
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  Speaker 3: three percent of GDP on defense. At the moment Britain
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  Speaker 3: is only on track to spend two point seven percent
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  Speaker 3: by twenty thirty. However, I don't think anyone presumes that
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  Speaker 3: heally will be precipitous in terms of wanting to look
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  Speaker 3: to you know, easy money, to borrowing simply to fill
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: that gap. You know, he's he's a pretty hard headed
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: you know his his thinking on fiscal policy. So I
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  Speaker 3: think he'll be regarded as a serious choice, as a
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  Speaker 3: choice that suggests the UK is serious about a major
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  Speaker 3: defense spending up lift, but not that not someone who's
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: going to take easy options to get there.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: What about Burnham's space. He talked about giving people breathing
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  Speaker 1: room with the cost of living, He talked about flexibility
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  Speaker 1: with the fiscal rules. Do we actually know did he
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  Speaker 1: say anything of substance.
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: Well in a in it heard no. He made one
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  Speaker 3: key new pledge to end rough sleeping that's already got
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  Speaker 3: critics pointing out that he didn't manage that in Manchester,
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  Speaker 3: where he made a similar pledge when he arrived as mayor.
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  Speaker 3: In a briefing with political editors shortly after his speech,
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  Speaker 3: he he gave some hint that he might look at
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  Speaker 3: raising the threshold for the personal allowance for income tax.
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  Speaker 3: It's currently around twelve and a half thousand pounds. That
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: could go up. You're also hinted he might look at
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  Speaker 3: introducing a new higher level of top rate of income
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  Speaker 3: tax for the highest earners. So some clues bear as
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: to how he might look to fund some of his
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: retail policies.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Lucy Fisher, Financial Times, Whitehall Editor.
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: For more from early edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: to News Talks It be from five am weekdays, or
• 3:36
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