Scoff at cheaper bus fares and No 10 North if you like, but Andy Burnham knows what he’s doing | Jonathan Freedland

Politics The Guardian By Jonathan Freedland 24 Jul 2026 16:01 1 min read

Retail politics while taking power out of London: if this works, Burnham’s premiership could be seriously transformational One of Andy Burnham’s first policy moves brought back a sharp memory. On Wednesday, he announced that single bus fares across England would be capped at £2, starting from January. It was part of a series of small, practical measures designed, said the new prime minister, to offer a little “breathing space” to a hard-pressed public, but this was the one that registered with m

Retail politics while taking power out of London: if this works, Burnham’s premiership could be seriously transformational

One of Andy Burnham’s first policy moves brought back a sharp memory. On Wednesday, he announced that single bus fares across England would be capped at £2, starting from January. It was part of a series of small, practical measures designed, said the new prime minister, to offer a little “breathing space” to a hard-pressed public, but this was the one that registered with me most. That’s because it echoed the first time I ever experienced a specific public policy that I realised affected me directly.

It was in the autumn of 1981 when the newly elected Greater London Council, led by Labour’s Ken Livingstone, slashed bus fares in the city. The headline-grabber was a new, short-hop fare of only 10p. I was 14 years old at the time, so for me it was even better: all child tickets were reduced to 5p. They called the scheme Fares Fair.

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