Kiran Stacey

But, you know, if they're saying you have to pay high interest rates, then you're hampered.

You know, you simply can't afford to do that.

And that is what Andy Burnham would have found anyway.

That's why we've started to hear murmurings of maybe the answer to this is to tax people more.

breaking the manifesto pledges well look there are elements of tax that you can raise without breaking the manifesto pledges the manifesto pledges were not to raise national insurance uh not to raise income tax and not to raise VAT you could go for capital gains tax you could find other things to tax they might not raise as much um I suspect if you're Andy Burnham or at least somebody who's doing policy for him at the moment you're looking at exactly those options right now

Well, that's a good question.

That's what a lot of people are asking.

Why resign now?

I mean, honestly, this is a genuine dispute.

I wrote a piece a couple of days ago for The Guardian saying that this has caused the biggest rift in cabinet since Labour has been in power.

And the briefings I was getting from Treasury, from Number 10 and from the MOD were really vitriolic.

You know, people...

being very scathing about each other and the way that they've handled themselves during this essentially year-long debate within government.

So that rancor does exist.

And I think Jordan Healy is resigning because he genuinely feels quite strongly about this.

I think you could ask whether he would have done this if the prime minister of the day was in a slightly stronger position.

And I think that's questionable.

If there was a different prime minister in post who didn't look like their days were numbered, would he be resigning in this way?

There will be people who say he sees that Andy Burnham is coming in.

Actually, it's better to get off this ship before it sinks.