Side by side
The Labour Party and The Liberal Democrats 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 SmithLib Dems
Safe and legal routes, and faster decisions
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Emphasises safe and legal routes and faster decision-making, arguing deterrence-first policy has repeatedly failed to reduce crossings.
Tax & 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 NewsLib Dems
£9.4bn for care and the NHS from bank and capital gains taxes
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A £9.4bn package for social care and the NHS, funded by higher taxes on banks and tighter capital gains rules for the very wealthy.
Check itLib Dem social care proposals examined — The ConversationNHS & 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 NewsLib Dems
Free personal care for everyone who needs it
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Free personal care for everyone who needs it, costed at £2.7bn a year by 2028–29 and funded by reversing tax cuts given to the large banks since 2016 — so that nobody has to sell their home to pay for personal care. Alongside it a Carer's Minimum Wage set £2 above the minimum wage, a Royal College of Care Workers, and Carer's Allowance raised by £20 a week with eligibility extended to anyone earning under £183 a week.
Analysts have welcomed the seriousness of the reform while questioning whether the funding stream covers the long-run cost.
Check itEd Davey launches plan for free personal care — Liberal DemocratsHousing
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 NewsLib Dems
Council-led building; empty homes back into use
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Expanding council-led housebuilding, bringing empty homes back into use, and requiring developers to deliver the affordable homes they have been permitted to build.
Crime & 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 AuthorityLib Dems
Restore community policing; scrap Police and Crime Commissioners
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Restoring community policing, and scrapping Police and Crime Commissioners in favour of local Police Boards made up of councillors and local representatives, with the savings put into frontline policing. Recent party papers also defend trial by jury against proposals to restrict it.
Check itStronger Communities, Safer Citizens — Liberal DemocratsEnergy & 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 NewsLib Dems
End sewage discharges by water companies
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Ending sewage discharges by water companies has been the party's most prominent environmental campaign.
Education
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 LibraryLib Dems
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.
Defence & 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 NewsLib Dems
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.
Europe & 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 NewsLib Dems
Repair the relationship with Europe; a new Magna Carta
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The most consistently pro-European of the six: repairing what Davey calls Britain's "broken relationship" with Europe, tearing down trade barriers and fixing the "botched" Brexit deal. Domestically he has called for "a new Magna Carta" to constrain executive power.
Media & 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 LibraryLib Dems
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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