Harriet Harman has told the Today programme she thinks Starmer, Burnham and Streeting should agree on a ‘process’ for a leadership contest, and Labour MPs should have the final say. Just six weeks ago, Starmer appointed Harman as his new ‘Adviser on Women and Girls’ in the wake of Labour’s local election bloodbath. Now she’s explaining to Justin Webb how he should probably go…
‘[They] should be got in a room by the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Lucy Powell, and the Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party, Jess Morden, to agree a process whereby the Labour MPs choose who they want… you can’t govern without the support of Labour MPs… But that’s my view. I think the process should be Labour MPs choosing. And I think that’s the best thing for stability of government.”
She did at least add that a woman should be on the ballot as well. So Starmer can be reassured she’s still taking her new role seriously, sort of…
Ambitious backbencher Wes Streeting is inviting Labour MPs for drinks in London to win them over. Supported by his all-resigned ministerial team…
Invites are going out:
“Dear colleague,
Please find an invite from Wes to join him, Zubir, Rosie, Steve and Joe for a drink next Tuesday to thank you for your support over two great years on the health and social care beat.
We’ll put some money behind the bar to say thanks – from running workshops on the 10 Year Health Plan, contributing to women’s health, cancer, HIV and men’s health plans, to asking probing questions in the House – you all played a part!”
Streeting has publicly said that he will force a Labour leadership contest to deny Andy Burnham the coronation that his team are keen on. Is someone looking to make his list a little longer…
Andy Burnham has just sat down for an interview with BBC Radio Manchester. Finally willing to (half) answer some questions…
On Brexit, he attempted to push back on the “skewed coverage” of his position, and insisted it wouldn’t be a priority for the next “five or ten years“. Damage control…
“I’ve not said that we should now focus on rejoining and I’m not saying that. We had a vote and we shouldn’t keep rerunning the arguments linked to that vote. We’ve got to focus relentlessly domestically. Let’s get this country functioning again… Let’s not worry then about our relationship with other places until we fix our own situation… I’m on the record as saying in my lifetime I would like to see us rejoin.”
“The country has to fix itself… and that has got to be our relentless priority in the next 5 or 10 years that’s where we’ve got to focus, that’s what we’ve got to get right before we focus on our relationships with other places.”
He also gave a wishy-washy answer on Net Zero:
“I’m not saying I’ve completely made a view on the North Sea issue. I’m listening to what people are saying about that… [It’s] not in our interest to talk about time-limited industries.”
The Mail’s Christian Calgie trekked up to Makerfield this week to follow Reform on the campaign trail. By coincidence, he collided with Andy Burnham in a café. It did not go well. Burnham decided to turn it into a lecture on ‘boundaries’ (during an historic by-election in which he’s trying to defenestrate the Prime Minister)…
Calgie writes today:
“He did not seem to want to engage. In fact he appeared furious and fumed: ‘You don’t go into a place like that unannounced! You’re out of order there!’
When I protested that I was merely on Nigel Farage’s campaign trail and that the encounter had not been planned, Mr Burnham raged: ‘I know who you are but you should not do that. You should have boundaries. I’m not going to do a “friendly, matey, this that or the other”. You need to be told.’
I could not understand why he was so angry and asked if he was taking lessons from Donald Trump by launching personal attacks on journalists for doing their jobs.
‘The Press does not walk in like that,’ he responded. ‘If you’re going in with the media and a political party, you do not waltz into a place like that.”
Burnham obviously isn’t getting enough sleep, because he also had a tetchy encounter with the Express’s Aaron Newbury. If he’s this allergic to media scrutiny already, we can probably rule out televised lobby briefings when he’s in No10…
The only candidate shortlisted, because why would anyone else have bothered…
At the time of going to pixel, Andy Burnham is the odds-on favourite to win the Makerfield by-election at a best price of 4/7, or an implied 64% probability. Reform have drifted to 2/1, although they haven’t yet unveiled their candidate. Restore Britain are at 11/1 and the Conservatives are a 940/1 afterthought in a seat they have never won…
| Labour (Burnham) | 4/7 |
64% |
| Reform | 2/1 |
33% |
| Restore Britain | 11/1 |
8% |
| Green | 200/1 |
<1% |
| Lib Dem | 500/1 |
<1% |
| Conservatives | 940/1 |
<1% |
There is still a month to go, and the prices are unlikely to be stable…
Speaking at his speech on how to achieve “progressive capitalism” Wes Streeting fired a dig and Andy Burnham:
“Bond markets are not bond villains and fiscal rules matter.”