Minutes before the King’s speech begins and during State Opening proceedings the Times reports:
Remember Ed Miliband reportedly told cabinet ministers he’d run against Streeting if a contest is triggered before Burnham can stand (Miliband denied this). Streeting could be gearing up to begin making moves after the King’s speech…
DESNZ says it makes “zero apologies” for splashing almost £30,000 of taxpayers’ cash to send Labour’s Climate Minister Katie White to South America on a hiking trip, as reported on these pixels yesterday. A spokesman told Guido:
“We make zero apologies for working with countries to tackle the climate crisis – the biggest long-term threat Britain faces.
“Minister White, in her role as the UK’s climate minister, championed our world leading clean energy sector to create further opportunities for British businesses in Chile.
“She also joined scientists and conservationists to see first-hand the immediate impacts of the climate crisis which are being felt all over the world, including in the UK.”
A reminder of White’s itinerary for the day of the glacier hike: travel to glacier, meet one person, do media, hike, film, come home. Everyone flew business class. “Zero apologies”…
Watch along…
Team Burnham have been hit with rejection along their search for a seat for the King of the North. It’s never as easy as they make out…
Guido hears that Burnham’s operation approached former minister Josh Simons to ask for him to give up his Makerfield seat. They got hit with a flat no…
Burnham organisers – who count Deputy Labour leader Lucy Powell among them – are said to be bitter about the rejection. Makerfield in Greater Manchester is one of the safest Labour seats in the country and ticks all of Burnham’s wish list boxes. Simons has a current majority of 5,399…
Simons penned a Times column over the weekend calling for Starmer to go and for radical change. It contained some ambitious ideas of its own: “People are right to want the system torn apart.“ It looks like Simons believes he has more to contribute from within the Commons…
Burnham was in London yesterday to meet MPs after arriving in Euston station. Blue Labour supremo Dan Carden has also denied that he will give up his Liverpool Walton seat. So have other contenders Marie Rimmer, Charlotte Nichols, and Peter Dowd. Gossip points the finger at Navendu Mishra in Stockport. Westminster rumours continue to circulate over a potential job swap between ex-minister Jim McMahon and Burnham…
Burnham’s team have been tight-lipped so far on their hypothetical seat arrangements, though they have boasted that they can trigger the process for the Manchester Mayor to enter parliament as soon as today. The proof is in the pudding…
New polling from More in Common – the first from the pollster since the locals – has a nine point lead for Reform. 3,070 adults, with fieldwork from 9-12 May. Changes from 4 May. As the rickety coup continues…
Paula Barker, Liverpool Wavertree MP backing Andy Burnham, told Times Radio there wouldn’t be trouble from the markets under Burnham:
“The markets will have to fall in line.”