Tax cuts and cost of living help proposed by Labour-linked groups allied to Streeting and Burnham

Groups connected to the health secretary, Wes Streeting , and the Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, have proposed large changes to government policy, giving a sense of how the country may change should either one succeed Keir Starmer. The Growth Group, allied to Streeting, and the Tribune group of Labour MPs, allied to Burnham, have published competing visions for how Britain should run, including sweeping tax cuts, help with the cost of living and big reforms to government machinery. With Keir Starmer under under concerted pressure to stand down, the groups are two of a number of Labour-linked organisations that have proposed radical measures as they try to influence the thinking of a future prime minister. In a document entitled An Honest Day, Mark McVitie, the director of the Labour Growth Group, which has connections with Streeting, called for a rise in capital gains tax to pay for a 2p cut in national insurance. Wes Streeting on Downing Street on Tuesday morning. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA The document also called for mayors in England to be given greater powers over tax and spending, for the creation of a new Department of the Prime Minister and for ministers to allow Thames Water to fail. It also made the case for refocusing British energy policy away from how much clean power it can generate to how expensive that clean power is – a potentially significant move away from Ed Miliband’s climate-focused energy agenda. …