Side by side
The Labour Party and Reform UK 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 SmithReform
Freeze non-essential immigration; abolish ILR; Deportation Command
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An immediate freeze on non-essential immigration and a new Deportation Command. Indefinite Leave to Remain would be abolished and existing grants rescinded, replaced by a five-year renewable visa carrying higher salary thresholds, mandatory English fluency and stricter good-character requirements.
Rupert Lowe left the party in part over his claim that Reform was "watering down" deportation policy — placing Reform to the left of Restore Britain on its own signature issue.
Check itPolicies — Reform UKTax & 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 NewsReform
Around £70bn a year of tax cuts
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Around £70bn a year of tax cuts, with family-focused measures including a 25% marriage allowance and child benefit front-loaded into the early years.
Independent economists have repeatedly questioned whether cuts on this scale can be funded without deep spending reductions the party has not specified.
Check itReform UK manifesto: policy breakdown — London DailyNHS & 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 NewsReform
Re-examine the funding model; tax breaks for NHS staff
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Re-examining the NHS funding model rather than the free-at-the-point-of-use principle. Specific pledges include temporarily zero-rating basic-rate income tax for NHS staff, tax relief on private health insurance, and independent reviews to train more staff and expand community services.
Check itPolicies — Reform UKHousing
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 NewsReform
Restrict social housing and welfare access for migrants
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Housing policy appears mainly through immigration: restricting welfare and social housing access for migrants.
Little detail published on overall housing supply or building targets.
Check itPolicies — Reform UKCrime & 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 AuthorityReform
40,000 more police; mandatory minimums; more prison places
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40,000 more police officers, expanded stop and search, mandatory minimum sentences for serious and repeat offenders, and more prison capacity so overcrowding no longer forces early release.
Check itReform UK manifesto: policy breakdown — London DailyEnergy & 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 NewsReform
Scrap net zero targets; return to North Sea gas
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Scrapping net zero targets outright and "rehabilitating" North Sea gas as a primary energy source, framed as the fastest way to cut household bills.
Check itPolicies — Reform UKEducation
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 LibraryReform
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 NewsReform
Little published beyond withdrawing from institutions
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Reform has published comparatively little defence policy. What exists is framed around withdrawal from international institutions and conventions rather than force structure or spending commitments.
Analysts characterise this as a foreign policy of withdrawal; the party has not published a defence spending target.
Check itReform UK: a foreign policy of withdrawal — Next Century FoundationEurope & 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 NewsReform
Leave the ECHR immediately
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A Reform government would leave the European Convention on Human Rights immediately, which the party presents as the mechanism that would let it deport people without legal challenge. Farage has framed withdrawal as the natural sequel to Brexit.
Legal scholars dispute the premise: the Convention does not dictate a state's immigration policy, and states set their own. The UK would also become the only European country outside it besides Russia and Belarus.
Check itPolicies — Reform UKMedia & 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 LibraryReform
Abolish the BBC licence fee; scrap DEI rules
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Abolition of the BBC licence fee outright, and scrapping Diversity, Equality and Inclusion requirements across the public sector.
Check itThe future of the BBC licence fee — House of Commons Library
Positions are summarised from each party’s published material. How we place parties.
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