Cut bosses' pay to help lower paid, says Andy Burnham

Company bosses should have their pay frozen or cut in order to pay their workers more, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has said.

Speaking to BBC News, he argued that at a time when people were struggling to pay their bills, it was right "to end the culture of high and excessive pay".

He also said there needed to be more "public control" of utility companies.

And he suggested he would consider running for the Labour leadership "one day".

During an earlier interview with Sky News, Mr Burnham said he supported Sir Keir Starmer and was focused on his job as Greater Manchester mayor but that he would not rule out running for prime minister as Labour leader in the future.

Sir Keir has come under pressure from the left of his party to support nationalising companies that provide essentials such as energy and water.

The TUC - the body which represents trade unions - has argued that privatisation has "failed" and that bringing energy companies into public ownership would reduce bills.

It estimates that nationalisation would cost £2.85bn but compares the figure to the £2.7bn it says has been given to the industry in bailouts.

Other politicians have made similar calls, including Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon who said nationalisation of energy companies should be "considered by the UK government and the Green Party who argued it would cut household costs by £2,000 per year.

And former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown has suggested threatening to temporarily nationalised the companies if they don't cut prices.

However, Sir Keir has rejected the idea, arguing that privatisation would mean compensating company shareholders which would be expensive and a waste of taxpayers' money.

Instead, he has proposed keeping bills down by freezing the energy price cap - partly paid for by expanding the windfall tax on oil and gas company profits.

Mr Burnham said it was "a good first step" but more was "going to be needed".

The former minister also accused the two Conservative leadership candidates - Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss - of not giving enough "clarity" about what they would do and said there was "a huge vacuum" at the top of government.

He urged ministers to negotiate with trade unions to "work out fair pay deals that would get us through this period".

He argued the pay deals could be funded by tackling "the culture of high and excessive pay in the top half of organisations".

"I am very directly talking about pay freezes, even pay cuts for people in the top 50% of organisations, people on hundreds of thousands, so we can give pay increases to people lower down, so their pay is enough to live on."

Also speaking to BBC News, culture minister Matt Warman said the government was in the process of rolling out £37bn to help with rising costs.

He said the package was "significant" but that it was right to let the next prime minister make the decision about what further support should be provided.

He added that the two candidates to lead the Conservative Party had "different visions for how things will be funded" but that there was "an acceptance that more will be done".

The winner of the race to be Conservative leader and replace Boris Johnson as prime minister will be announced on 5 September.