Andy Burnham must persuade Labour MPs that getting tough is only way to end welfare nightmare

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham speaks to the media at HM Naval Base in Portsmouth, Hampshire, during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s visit to the UK. Picture date: Monday July 27, 2026. Aaron Chown/Pool via REUTERS Credit: Reuters Tough love IN what world does it make sense to allow teenagers to make more money from welfare than work? Youngsters can get £100 more a week by claiming a PIP for anxiety than by working the maximum hours in a minimum-wage job. Is it any wonder that mental health claims have soared? Andy Burnham will tomorrow lay out plans to roll out more vocational training for so-called NEETs. Young people could face being stripped of their benefits unless they agree to do training or voluntary work. Sign up for The Sun newsletter Thank you! That’s to be applauded. But by itself it won’t solve the overall problem of allowing tens of thousands to claim big welfare cheques for mild cases of depression and anxiety. Burnham’s biggest hurdle will be forcing even these modest proposals past his own delusional backbench MPs. READ MORE ON ANDY BURNHAM He has to persuade them that getting tough is the only way out of our welfare nightmare. Troubles toll OUR new Prime Minister says he wants his Government to be all about fairness. That means treating everyone equally under the law regardless of background. So where does that leave our hero veterans who served with bravery and courage in Northern Ireland, operating under a daily threat of IRA murder? Most read in The Sun Many terrorists who brought death and mayhem to the innocent during the Troubles received immunity from prosecution in the Good Friday peace deal. Thanks to Labour’s reversal of Tory laws, NO such comfort exists for anyone who served in the British Army. As ex-Generals Sir Peter Wall and Sir Nick Parker declare in an open letter today, no one should be above the law. But men well into their 70s are now being hounded over trumped-up murder charges from events five decades ago. Burnham must urgently reconsider Keir Starmer’s wholly inadequate Troubles Bill — and scrap it. Leave it, PM LABOUR is playing with fire over its internal fight to force Shabana Mahmood to water down her immigration reforms. The plans are both sensible and long overdue — so, inevitably, they have enraged the party’s so-called soft Left. Now the PM has given a clear hint he will order his Home Secretary to cut the qualification for indefinite leave to remain to five years from ten. He could also give exemptions for tens of thousands of low-paid, unskilled workers in health and social care. That will saddle taxpayers with a massive, decades-long bill for public services used by this influx of migrants. It would also send an unwelcome message that Britain’s border system remains a soft touch. 1 comment1