Andy Burnham has pledged to donate 15% of his prime minister’s salary to homelessness causes.
Burnham told the Big Issue this week of his charitable vow, after recently promising to give 15% of £98,600 MP’s salary to local causes in his Makerfield constituency.
The money going to homelessness charities and causes will be 15% of his additional £75,400 claimed salary as prime minister.
Speaking to Big Issue as he visited homelessness charity Changing Lives in Newcastle-upon-Tyne on Wednesday, Burnham 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.”
Earlier this week, Burnham announced a national drive to ensure everyone sleeping rough in England is offered a route off the streets by Christmas, backed by £442m of funding.
Some £8.4m of this has been earmarked for charities, faith groups and community organisations, while a national summit involving sector leaders has been scheduled for the autumn.
When mayor of Greater Manchester, Burnham donated 15% of his earnings to a charity he set up focused on tackling homelessness and ending the need for rough sleeping in the area.
