Decisive steps to tackle alcohol harm may seem unlikely under pint-quaffing prime ministerial heir apparent Andy Burnham, but the policy blueprint of “Manchesterism” also offers some hope.
Burnham, whose carefully curated brand is that of a blokish northern everyman, portrayed himself as sympathetic to alcohol throughout his campaign for the Makerfield constituency, which looks set to propel him into Number 10.
“I’m going to go and have a pint,” he told reporters after his decisive victory was announced in the early hours of Friday morning. And during the campaign he was pictured with a branded stout with “Vote Andy” written in the foam.
Burnham raised this pint to the Telegraph’s “Save our pubs” campaign and pledged to cut local business taxes for pubs, clubs and music venues by 20%. He also said he would raise the threshold at which these local taxes are paid.
Tax expert Dan Neidle said such cuts to local business taxes would amount to a tax handout to business property owners rather than to the hospitality businesses that rent from them.
But what happens on the campaign trail may also stay on the campaign trail. If so, Manchester’s approach to alcohol may be a stronger indicator, with nationwide “Manchesterism” said to underpin Burham’s plan.
Manchester’s drug and alcohol strategy for 2019-2021, the latest strategy document currently available on the Greater Manchester site, may offer some clues.
The strategy recognises Manchester’s alcohol deaths and hospital admissions 50% above the average for England and that spending on alcohol related crime, health, worklessness and social care costs amount to £1.3bn ($1.7bn) a year.
The strategy says the authority would help “review the evidence base” around Minimum Unit Pricing for alcohol. And create “Alcohol Health Champions” to offer advice and involvement with the local licensing processes.
And it also said it planned to “influence government” around the availability of high strength alcohol products, the inclusion of health as a fifth alcohol licensing objective and a watershed for alcohol advertising.
Adapting Manchester’s approach to the national level would be a step forward. Added to this could be an alcohol tax increase above inflation to raise much-needed government income, with his predecessor Keir Starmer only keeping taxes in line with inflation.
This would be a shift. As culture secretary under Gordon Brown in the late noughties Burnham championed licensing changes allowing 24-hour drinking. At the time he said a proposed 9pm advertising watershed in Scotland was “a bit silly”.
As health secretary in the last year of Brown’s tenure he lent his voice to an alcohol industry responsible-drinking campaign. And he was outed as having been an enthusiastic drinker as a member of the exclusive all-male Mornie Onion Society at Cambridge university.
Burnham, like other Labour top brass, admitted in 2015 that allowing 24-hour drinking was a mistake, adding another layer to Burnham’s self-contradictory picture around alcohol and alcohol policy.
And his programme is still far from clear on this and any other topic, But he may make some progress if he chooses Manchester’s policy ideas over embodying a working-class northern stereotype. ■