Side by side
The Labour Party and The Conservative and Unionist Party across all ten areas, in their own stated terms. Open in full for the detail beneath any line.
Immigration & asylum
Labour
Continues Mahmood reforms; cites 43% fall in crossings
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Burnham voted for and continues to back Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood's immigration reforms, which reshape the asylum appeals process and remove barriers to deportation. The government points to the 43% year-on-year fall in Channel crossings as evidence that enforcement co-operation with France is working.
He has not set out an approach distinct from the one he inherited, and Ipsos finds the public unconvinced the government will deliver on immigration.
Check itWhat to expect from Andy Burnham — Travers SmithConservative
Ban asylum claims from illegal entrants; remove 150,000 a year
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The Borders Plan would impose a total ban on asylum claims from anyone entering illegally and create a Removals Force tasked with removing 150,000 people a year. Indefinite Leave to Remain would require ten years rather than five, and would be refused to anyone who had claimed benefits, used social housing, or was not a net fiscal contributor.
Check itOur Borders Plan — ConservativesTax & the economy
Labour
Act on the frozen personal allowance; wealth tax not ruled out
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Action on the income tax personal allowance, frozen at £12,570 — which Burnham called "the thing I heard most on the doorsteps". Business rates would rise on large warehouses while high-street shops and pubs are exempted. He has not ruled out a wealth tax.
A £4.7bn gap in the existing spending plan is to be "confirmed at Budget 2026", so the funding is not yet set out.
Check itAndy Burnham's main policy pledges — Yahoo NewsConservative
Scrap stamp duty; £23bn of welfare savings
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A stated "fully funded" plan to scrap stamp duty, and £23bn of savings from welfare — framed as ending Britain's "welfare addiction" and building a high-growth, low-immigration economy in which reform expands the domestic workforce rather than immigration filling the gap.
Check itWhy only the Conservatives can fix Britain's problems — Conservative HomeNHS & social care
Labour
A publicly funded national care service
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A publicly funded national care service, which Burnham has framed as finally "grasping the nettle" on social care reform and links to his father's Alzheimer's. The Tobacco and Vapes Act, passed in April 2026, makes it illegal to sell cigarettes to anyone born after 2008.
Check itAndy Burnham's main policy pledges — Yahoo NewsConservative
92,000 more nurses and 28,000 more doctors
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92,000 more nurses and 28,000 more doctors in the NHS than in 2023 by the end of the Parliament.
From the 2024 general election manifesto, which remains the party's most recent full platform; Badenoch has not published a replacement, and has since abandoned the net zero target that manifesto contained.
Check itConservative manifesto summary — Local Government AssociationHousing
Labour
End rough sleeping; biggest council housebuilding since the war
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Burnham's stated "first instruction" on entering Downing Street was to end rough sleeping. He has promised the biggest council house building programme since the post-war period, using vacant public land to hold costs down, with higher-density development in existing towns.
Check itAndy Burnham's main policy pledges — Yahoo NewsConservative
Scrapping stamp duty is the main housing measure
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Scrapping stamp duty is the party's principal published housing-market measure.
No detailed building or supply programme published under the current leadership.
Check itWhy only the Conservatives can fix Britain's problems — Conservative HomeCrime & justice
Labour
3,000 more neighbourhood officers within twelve months
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3,000 additional neighbourhood officers and PCSOs within twelve months, with dedicated teams patrolling town centres at peak times to end what the government calls the policing "postcode lottery". Burnham points to his Greater Manchester record: 8,271 officers by March 2026, around 2,000 more than when he took office in 2017, alongside a 15% fall in neighbourhood crime.
Check itBurnham's policing plan — Greater Manchester Combined AuthorityConservative
8,000 more neighbourhood police; 20,000 prison places
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8,000 more neighbourhood police officers with a named officer for every community, mandatory whole-life orders for the worst murders including those involving sadistic or sexual conduct, full custodial terms served for rape and serious sexual offences, and 20,000 additional prison places.
Also from the 2024 manifesto rather than a new platform under the current leadership.
Check itConservative manifesto summary — Local Government AssociationEnergy & net zero
Labour
Strip policy levies from bills, worth about £130 a year
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Removing policy levies from energy bills, worth roughly £130 a year to a household, at a cost to the taxpayer of about £3.2bn a year.
Check itAndy Burnham's main policy pledges — Yahoo NewsConservative
Repeal the Climate Change Act; net zero by 2050 unreachable
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Repealing the Climate Change Act. Badenoch argues net zero by 2050 cannot be reached "without a serious drop in our living standards or by bankrupting us".
Check itNet zero by 2050 'impossible', says Badenoch — BBC NewsEducation
Labour
VAT on private school fees, in force since January 2025
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VAT has been charged at the standard 20% rate on private school fees since 1 January 2025, removing a long-standing exemption. The Treasury forecast the measure would raise £1.51bn in 2025/26.
The government's own forecast expected 37,000 pupils — about 6% of the private sector — to move into state schools as a result. Several large private schools responded by sharply expanding bursaries.
Check itVAT on private school fees — House of Commons LibraryConservative
Criticises VAT on school fees but will not reverse it
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The party has criticised the imposition of VAT on private school fees but has not committed to reversing it in government.
No broader schools programme published under the current leadership.
Check itVAT on private school fees — House of Commons LibraryDefence & foreign policy
Labour
Keep NATO and the nuclear deterrent; upgrade equipment
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Maintaining the NATO commitment and the nuclear deterrent, and upgrading equipment through a defence investment plan.
Check itAndy Burnham's main policy pledges — Yahoo NewsConservative
Defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2030
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Defence spending raised to 2.5% of GDP by 2030 on what the party called a fully funded path — presented as the largest sustained increase since the Cold War, keeping the UK the largest defence power in Europe.
2024 manifesto commitment; not restated as a costed pledge under the current leadership.
Check itConservative manifesto summary — Local Government AssociationEurope & the constitution
Labour
Closer co-operation, not rejoining; devolution at home
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Having previously supported rejoining the EU, Burnham now says he will avoid a "permanent rut" of that argument, seeking closer co-operation on defence, illegal migration and economic security instead. Domestically his defining project is devolution: a "No 10 in the North" based in Manchester, and water, transport and housing brought under stronger public control short of full nationalisation.
Check itAndy Burnham's main policy pledges — Yahoo NewsConservative
Leave the ECHR; repeal the Human Rights Act
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Leaving the European Convention on Human Rights and the anti-trafficking convention ECAT, and repealing the Human Rights Act. Badenoch has made this a condition of candidate selection: only those backing withdrawal from the ECHR and the scrapping of net zero are approved to stand.
Check itOur Borders Plan — ConservativesMedia & culture
Labour
Keep the licence fee to charter end, while reviewing it
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The government is committed to the licence fee until the end of the current BBC charter, while its royal charter review considers reform of the fee and greater commercial revenue for the corporation. A public consultation closed in March 2026 and a white paper is expected later in the year.
Check itThe future of the BBC licence fee — House of Commons LibraryConservative
No current published position located. This may mean the party has said little on the subject, or that we have not found what it has said — we would rather show the gap than fill it with inference.
Positions are summarised from each party’s published material. How we place parties.
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