Union leader says getting rid of triple lock not ‘the right thing’ as the PM prepares to lay out his ‘hope comes from honesty’ vision in Liverpool this afternoon

• Burnham promises to roll back privatisation with government-backed grid plan

The pensions triple lock may not be the only policy area where Andy Burnham triggers a “hope comes from honesty” policy row this afternoon. Recently he refused to rule out proposing rejoining the EU in Labour’s manifesto and, in a story for the Independent, David Maddox and Athena Stavrou report:

Ministers have told The Independent that the prime minister is building the case to put rejoin in the manifesto at the next election. They have said it is now a question of “how it is expressed in the manifesto, rather than if” …

One senior minister told The Independent that “the mood has completely changed on this subject.”

I think we can frankly get more from what we need for our people, for our businesses here, by pragmatically looking at this through a trade lens. How can we improve that trade relationship, rather than these constitutional questions, which, frankly, you know, they cause a lot of uncertainty for business.

Look at the arrangements we’ve already got. You don’t add a lot more to it through a customs union ... and you’d be having to, you know, frankly, accept a whole range of alignment on regulatory issues.

What will Europe be in the future? I mean, there are clearly very challenging politics in Germany. It’s very clear that the French presidential election could be different. I honestly don’t know if you will evolve in one direction or the other. So I can’t really give you an answer to that.

We can’t carry on as we are.

Politics as usual has taken Britain backwards, and more of the same won’t get us where we need to be.