IN FULL: Burnham and Badenoch CLASH as leaders go head-to-head in first PMQs

Andy Burnham and Kemi Badenoch have clashed over the Prime Minister’s spending commitments, as the Conservative leader said Mr Burnham needed to be a “leader not a people-pleaser”. Mrs Badenoch had asked Mr Burnham during his three-hour, 23-minute statement in the Commons on Tuesday if he had denied a spending request. In turn, he said he was committed to bringing down the welfare bill He said: “I do not want to be a Prime Minister that sees a situation where we have so many people in their 20s not in education, employment or training. “I can’t defend that, and I want to change that by giving more support to young people so that we start investing in their success rather than paying for failure, as we have done for many years under successive governments.” Mrs Badenoch replied: “He did not say no to a single spending request, and personally I think it’s delightful that he wants to make everyone happy but a Prime Minister needs to be a leader not a people-pleaser.” She added: “Yesterday the Prime Minister told the House that his summer of promises would be paid for by reprioritising within Government. So what exactly has he cut?” Mr Burnham replied: “In terms of ‘what has he cut?’, tax is the simple answer to that question. Within days of office I indicated that we would remove VAT off electricity bills, that will help people with the cost of living and then days later with the support of the Chancellor we said that there would be a cut in business rates for pubs, social clubs, live music venues. So this Government (is) lowering the cost of living, lowering the cost of business.” To read more: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic... The Mirror Facebook:   / dailymirror   The Mirror IG:   / dailymirror   The Mirror TikTok:   / dailymirror   The Mirror Twitter:   / dailymirror   The Mirror Homepage: https://www.mirror.co.uk Sign up for our newsletters: https://www.mirror.co.uk/email #andyburnham #pmqs #Politics