Andy Burnham has announced he will keep the controversial pensions triple lock when he becomes prime minister.
The PM-in-waiting has been under pressure from some of his own economic advisers to ditch the scheme, which critics claim protects wealthy pensioners at the expense of the young.
He said he appreciated there was a “lot of debate” about the lock, but said it was “important that the commitment in the manifesto stands”.
Labour’s 2024 manifesto commits the party to the triple lock, which protects the rate at which the state pension rises.
In an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on Reddit, he also ruled out an early election, said he saw scope for a better trade deal with the EU and chose the Martin Scorsese mob thriller Goodfellas among his favourite films.
During the session, he also faced a question from the Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, who suggested he should “face a proper press conference”. He replied that this was a “fair challenge” but added he had recently faced questions from 74,000 voters ahead of winning the Makerfield by-election.
For someone who could be in No 10 on 20 July, Mr Burnham has received little scrutiny over his policy platform and has given only one interview, on Thursday evening with LBC.
On an early election, he said “no”, adding that he would “work to the 2024 manifesto.”
But he did say he would campaign for one change in the party’s next manifesto: proportional representation.
He was a “strong supporter of electoral reform, partly because I believe it will enable the change to a more collaborative politics, and one that is less about point-scoring and more about problem-solving,” he said.
He added: “I will seek to persuade my own party of the need for a manifesto commitment to it in the next manifesto.”
The party’s 2024 manifesto instead focused its electoral and constitutional changes on extending voting to 16 and 17-year-olds and House of Lords reform.
On foreign policy, he said he would back Ukraine “100 per cent”.
Asked if he saw “scope for negotiating a more ambitious trade agreement than the one we currently have” with the EU, he said “yes” and pledged to build on the “good work” the government has already done.
He also promised to ensure the defence investment plan is “fully funded”, days after the blueprint, which led John Healey to resign as defence secretary, was finally published.
On youth unemployment, he hit out at the “modern trend of only offering interviews on Teams or Zoom as I don’t think that enables young people to get their personality and passion over.”
And he said his favourite band was currently Doves, while he named his four favourite films as Goodfellas, The Big Short, Brassed Off and Pride.
