Henry Zeffman

speaker

1,893 appearances 15 recordings 1 series first heard Apr 2026 last heard 13 Sep

Henry Zeffman’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 15 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 5.

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Newscast · Is Andy Burnham Rewarding Starmer’s Challengers? · 22 Jul 2026 podcast

Well, for the second consecutive day, Adam, I got an email landing in my inbox at about 6 in the morning

And for the second consecutive day, it included a quote from Andy Burnham, the new prime minister, using the phrase breathing space.

And that has become his mantra as prime minister over these three days that he has spent in the job so far.

And it is really striking thing that for two consecutive days and I wouldn't be surprised if there's a third and fourth and beyond.

Andy Burnham wants the morning, wants the day to be dominated by the sense that he is doing something about what he and so many other politicians say is voters' number one issue, which is the cost of living.

Well, it is certainly a point that is being made by the Conservatives today that this was a policy introduced by the Conservatives back in 2023.

Initially, by the way, just meant to be temporary and then quickly became permanent, as is often the case with these things.

The Conservatives said at the 2024 general election that they wanted to find a way to maintain it.

Then Sir Keir Starmer increased the cap to £3 back in 2025.

So, look, I think

There's an interesting question here about whether, though, as Chris was saying, this has only been introduced by Andy Burnham for the calendar year 2027, whether actually this is going to become a bit like fuel duty has become for the past, well, 16 years now, one of those government policies which in theory is always going to change.

In theory, the cap is always going to increase at some point in the future.

But in practice, it just becomes politically impossible ever to change it.

That's right.

And it is, by the way, notable that for the second consecutive day again, a government spending announcement has come with an instantaneous explanation of how this is being funded by spending cuts or spending reprioritisation rather than increased borrowing, because Andy Burnham is certainly very alive to the possibility that

that they might spook the financial markets if they look like they're being profligate.

In this case, he says most of the scheme is being funded by £400 million, which the government was going to invest in climate projects.

But he says instead that is going to be a loan.

which means that the capital can be spent on this bus policy instead.

There's another £50 million or so which is going towards this project, which hasn't been spent, again, from Department for Energy Security and net zero budgets.

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