Andy Burnham praised for making the case for greater public ownership of essential utilities

“Everybody needs the basics, everybody needs to be able to afford the basics”.

The Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham has been praised for making the case for greater public ownership of essential utilities, while taking apart Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss for calling for more Thatcherism.

Burnham said that Thatcherism is what had got us into the current mess, saying that change was needed in the way that essential services such as transport and utilities are provided.

He told Sky News that there is “a case for more public control, more public ownership, of essential utilities”.

He said: “I’ve listened to the leadership debate in the Tory Party this summer and they’ve both been promising more Thatcherism. Well, as far as I’m concerned, that is what got us into the mess that we’re in right now.

“When we sold off the water, sold off the electricity, sold off the gas, sold off the council homes, sold off the buses, sold off the trains we found ourselves in a position where ordinary people can’t afford those basics anymore, those essentials and therefore change is needed in the way that we provide those essential services.

“Everybody needs the basics, everybody needs to be able to afford the basics”.

Burnham went on to highlight how he has put buses back into public control in Greater Manchester and put in a place a fare cap. He went on to say that greater deregulation and privatisation had left the country with chaos on trains and busses and raw sewage on our beaches.

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward

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