Andy Burnham braces for first PMQs bout with Kemi Badenoch as pressure mounts on welfare and defence

ANDY Burnham is bracing for his opening PMQs bout against Kemi Badenoch as the two rivals seek to draw first blood.

The pair will face off in the Commons at noon amid mounting issues for the new PM including the economy, welfare and defence.

It follows an initial clash yesterday as Mr Burnham faced a marathon grilling from MPs on his first appearance in Parliament.

The Prime Minister has been under mounting pressure to raise defence spending to three per cent having hinted he wanted to boost funding for the armed forces.

After John Healey’s resignation he said he would reduce the welfare bill to spend more money on defence.

But the next Chancellor has sparked a hypocrisy row after backpedalling on a military cash boost he previously demanded.

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Meanwhile Britain’s borrowing costs continue to surge and have risen sharply within the last few months.

The rates hit a multi-decade high and tipped over 5 per cent.

The new PM used his first Commons speech in the job to warn that “Britain is not where any of us would wish it to be”.

He singled out “a series of wrong turns in the 1980s” as well as the decision to leave the European Union as the reason for a lack of UK growth — rather than the record taxes Labour has imposed.

Mr Burnham faced MPs for the first time since entering No 10 six weeks ago and embarking on a summer tour announcing relatively small cost-of-living giveaways.

Ahead of his marathon three-hour grilling by MPs yesterday, the Labour leader was seen working up a sweat during his morning run.

The PM will feel the heat even more, as long-term government borrowing costs rose to their highest level since 1998.

At the dispatch box for the first time in 16 years, Mr Burnham said: “Britain is not where any of us would wish it to be. Things are not working as they should. Life is too expensive and too hard for too many.”

The ex-Manchester Mayor said his decade away from Westminster had given him a “clear diagnosis” of the source of the UK’s troubles.

The Prime Minister took aim at the legacy of former PM Mrs Thatcher and her programme of privatisation, as well as pulling out of the EU.

He said: “Political power was centralised, economic power privatised, the country deindustrialised, austerity followed, hollowing out councils and depriving them of the agency to act to reverse any of this.”

He added: “Then Brexit compounded the damage, ushering in a decade of low growth and stalled regeneration. Far from taking back control, the combination of these policies took control out of the hands of communities up and down Britain.

“For 40 years, too many places have been drifting.”

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch attacked Mr Burnham for living in the past when he should be focused on the future.

She hit back: “The year is 2026, yet the Prime Minister said in his statement that everything has gone wrong since the 1980s, still complaining about Margaret Thatcher. I may not look it, but I’m 46 years old. He is talking about a woman who became Prime Minister before I was born. He is living in the past and he wants to take us back to the 1970s.

“On this side of the House, we are for the future, not the past. That is the difference between them and us. His ideas are all about more government control, more spending, more tax, more politicians.”