Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, is The Mirror's new columnist, giving his view on the political issues of the day every Sunday and beyond.
In his first column for the Sunday Mirror here below, Andy blasts Rishi Sunak for using young people as 'political pawns'...
Young people of Britain –your country needs you! The day is fast approaching when you will be expected to gather at a designated point in your local community.
Upon presentation of your ID at the desk, you will be issued with your papers. It will then be time for you to do your national service.
The good news is, it will be as simple as this: to put an X in the box that gives Britain a fresh start on July 4. One thing that can be said about Rishi’s national service plan is that it will at least achieve something other politicians have tried and failed to do: get our teenagers out to vote.
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To be fair to our children and grandchildren, there is a reason why his surprise announcement has stuck in their throats. His is a party which has spent the past 14 years making life much harder for them and kicking ladders away.
Remember their first acts in 2010? Cutting school sport, the education maintenance allowance and trebling university tuition fees. A year later, Michael Gove’s “English Baccalaureate”, or EBacc, forced schools to focus on the university route – leaving students wanting technical qualifications feeling second-class.
And then, during the pandemic, when they brought in Sir Kevan Collins to advise on the catch-up investment young people needed to repair the damage of the lockdowns, they ignored his £15billion estimate and left us with a youth mental health crisis.
Let’s be honest, a government which has systematically undermined young people’s life chances and now requires unpaid service from them is unlikely to go down well.
That said, I am not against giving more opportunity and structured pathways. I just think there is a much fairer way of doing it. In Greater Manchester, we believe we have the answer. We are about to introduce the “Greater Manchester Baccalaureate”, or MBacc – an equal alternative to university route for those wanting technical qualifications.
We will steer young people at 14 to the GCSE options which employers in our region most value. For instance, engineering GCSE and creative subjects excluded from the EBacc will most certainly be in the MBacc.
At 16, we want every young person to have a quality work placement as part of their T Level or other qualifications and then, at 18 or 19, a quality apprenticeship or degree apprenticeship option. Our aim is to give all young people in Greater Manchester a guarantee of a quality work placement from a named employer.
And we will make sure there is truly a path for everyone, with extra support for young people with special educational needs. You cannot build a strong society by making the next generation the target for cuts and then political pawns in an election campaign.
Greater Manchester has a plan to give all young people direction in life – and I hope an incoming Labour Government will soon make it a national plan.
My plea on nuclear victims
Last time we had national service, thousands of young men were sent to the other side of the world and exposed to nuclear explosions without protective equipment. The story of our nuclear test veterans in the 1950s and early 60s is the longest-standing of the Whitehall cover-ups.
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The Mirror has brilliantly exposed the scale of this injustice. Tomorrow, it will publish new proof that it has followed the same pattern as the Post Office, infected blood and Hillsborough scandals. I am asking all main parties to make a manifesto commitment to set up the special truth tribunal required by our veterans in the first year of the new Parliament. Time is not on their side and this is the least our country should do respect their service.
Birthday boy John Prescott knew how to liven up a campaign
The great John Prescott’s 86th birthday on Friday took me back to my first election campaign in 2001.
As the nervous candidate for Leigh, I thought we were sunk when he punched a protester in Rhyl. The next day, I realised I needn’t have worried. Everyone I approached wearing my red rosette either did a pretend duck or said: “Don’t hit me!”
John, right, enlivened a drab campaign – and truly knew how to “connect with the public”.
Keir's radical benefits plan is welcome
It’s good to see Keir Starmer promising radical reform and a more localised approach to benefits.
The current system’s tick-box “computer says no” approach is designed to trip people up.
By contrast, Greater Manchester has pioneered a more positive, personalised approach and Labour’s commitment to take it national is another reason to feel hopeful.
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