Andy Burnham to donate 15% of PM's salary to homelessness fight: ‘I want to lead from the front’

Andy Burnham has exclusively told Big Issue he will donate 15% of his prime minister’s salary to homelessness causes.

The prime minister, who announced yesterday that he would offer all people rough sleeping in England a route off the streets by Christmas, previously pledged to donate a portion of his earnings to homelessness while Greater Manchester mayor.

He has pledged to support local causes in his Makerfield consistency since becoming MP, offering 15% of the £98,599.31 he earns in the role.

Now, he has vowed to give 15% of the additional £83,837 he will take home as prime minister to homelessness charities and causes.

Speaking to Big Issue as he visited homelessness charity Changing Lives in Newcastle-upon-Tyne on Wednesday (19 August), the prime minister said: “I wouldn’t want to ask anybody to do anything that I’m not prepared to do. I want to lead from the front.

“This issue matters massively to me. I don’t want to live in a country where walking past people sleeping rough just becomes commonplace and we almost say: ‘Well, that’s it, there’s nothing we can do.’

“There are things that we can do. We proved it in the pandemic. We should do it again now and it should just be what we do all the time.”

Burnham made a pledge to end rough sleeping his first instruction after being unveiled as prime minister last month.

This week he laid out his first steps on how he intends to achieve a milestone that has eluded governments since the New Labour years. Burnham’s approach echoes the Everyone In scheme that saw rough sleepers taken off the streets during the Covid pandemic.

Read more:

• Andy Burnham’s approach to housing could put him on a collision course with Donald Trump
• Nationalisation, buses and homes for rough sleepers: This is what Andy Burnham’s Britain will look like
• Andy Burnham wants to prevent homelessness. But can he do it in ‘landlord-class Britain’?

The prime minister announced that every person sleeping rough in England will be given a route off the streets by Christmas.

New accommodation and support will be rolled out across England this winter based on the A Bed Every Night model he pioneered as Greater Manchester mayor.

Emergency accommodation will be made available alongside help with housing, health and other needs to help people out of homelessness, backed with increased funding of £442 million.

Big Issue founder Lord John Bird said Burnham’s announcement that he will back up his announcement with a personal commitment is significant.

“The prime minister is leading by example by donating 15% of his salary to the fight against homelessness. This gesture reminds us that homelessness is all our problem and eradicating it will need everyone to put our shoulder to the wheel,” said Bird.

“Today he’s backed his ambition with personal and political action, and I look forward to working with him to make this ambition a reality.”

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