Football’s coming home with Thomas Tuchel…
Andy Burnham has not answered a question from a journalist in two weeks. He has instead done an interview with Gary Lineker in which he refused to rule out a wealth tax:
“I’m going to obviously take my time to properly look at the state of things, particularly the state of finances. And I just said a moment ago, Gary, about bringing people together. You know, I don’t want to come in and sort of, if you like, create new divisions and pitch people one against another.
I’m not going rule things out right now. I do believe we need a greater sense of fairness and people feeling that things are being done in the right way and a fair way. But at the same time, you know, I don’t want to sort of be perceived as somebody who’s coming in with grudges and agendas and, you know, going to just immediately find or demonise one group or create a new way of dividing people.
So, you know, decisions to be taken in time, they’re going to be difficult. I’m not going to shy away from that. You know, we are going to have to work quite hard to make sure, you know, we can pay our way.
And at some point that might be having to ask for a little more. But, you know, those decisions are not for now. They’re for another day.”
Buckle up…
The Green Party’s newest MP is hiring staff for under the average Living Wage. Shocking…
Hannah Spencer is hiring a parliamentary officer for between £25,528 – £32,550. The lower amount for working in Manchester, the upper for London…
The UK Living Wage as stated by the campaign, however, is £26,227.50 outside of London for a 37.5 hour week. Spencer is offering almost a whole grand less than that…
The MP, who won the Gorton & Denton by-election and has since been complaining about booze in the Commons and how hot the weather is, told the Guardian: “Everyone is finding that their wages don’t go as far as they used to.” On winning the seat she said:
“With their support, I will join my Green MP colleagues in the House of Commons, hold the government to account and demand action to push down costs, raise wages and bring desperately needed investment into our community.”
Do as I say, not as I do…
Allies of Shabana Mahmood are maintaining the line that she wants to stay in the Home Office. There is certainly a lot of personnel churn at the senior level there…
Mahmood’s department has recently hired an agency for £37,000 to find a new Director of Communications in the department. Did the last one not manage to communicate Mahmood’s priorities correctly?
As Guido revealed in a recent Labour Wars column Shabana has also now sacked her Principal Private Secretary – the influential mandarin who links the Secretary of State to everything else on the Civil Service side. She brought this one in from the MoJ after removing the sitting Home Office PPS on her arrival to the department…
Mahmood’s chances of going to the Treasury are up after a series of briefings last night claimed that Miliband would not get the gig. Yvette Cooper is spoken of highly. Allies of Pat McFadden still have hope that he might be offered the job, according to conversations overheard by Guido last night…
The Metropolitan Police have arrested a man who tweeted at Nigel Farage on 8 May: “I am going to shoot you in the head if you win.” He was only arrested yesterday…
Farage was told about the arrest today. He told the Telegraph:
“This is the first time the police have ever proactively acted on a social media post and I hope they are looking at the other three or four hundred similar posts from this year alone.
This has been going on for years, not just words but videos of people firing guns and so on, and in the past we have put multiple reports in to the police, always to be told that these social media posts don’t meet the threshold, which is extraordinary.
And it goes deeper than that. It’s about the comedian Jo Brand joking about throwing battery acid in my face, it’s about Noel Fielding telling people to stab me, and if the police now decide to act to protect the lives of serving and ex politicians, then at least something good will have come out of Ann’s horrific death.”
Long arrest time…
Tom Baldwin, author of Starmer’s hagiography, spoke to Times Radio:
Tom Baldwin: “I think he’d like to do something. He’s very dutiful and driven by service. That’s why he came into politics. I think that’s characterised his time as prime minister. He hasn’t always sought popularity or been good at being popular. But I think he has some of the necessary qualities that we actually do want in a prime minister. That resilience, that relentlessness, that ability to carry the weight and the job really does weigh very heavily on people and he carries that weight very, very well.”
Jo Coburn: “NATO Secretary-General?”
Tom Baldwin: “I think that’s something that he would be interested in. I think it probably requires Andy Burnham’s government to support him in that and these are some of the questions which Andy Burnham has to resolve quite quickly.”