Who will be Andy Burnham’s Chancellor? – politicalbetting.com
Who will be Andy Burnham’s Chancellor? – politicalbetting.com
The Times are reporting that Andy Burnham has shortlisted his Chancellor down to three names, I can see why Wes Streeting is the favourite but I do think the value might be with Shabana Mahmood.
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So, yes, Mahmood (if this is shortlist is accurate, which it very well might not be)
BBC Today giving him a rough time this morning - deservedly so.
In an all my years covering politics I have never met anyone so lacking in interest in the skills a leader needs - the ability to tell a story; to listen to colleagues; to woo, persuade & chivvy. Keir Starmer isn’t just uninterested in these requirements of the job. He is dismissive & contemptuous of them. @AndrewMarr9 sums this up in the @NewStatesman rather more memorably than I could …
https://x.com/bbcnickrobinson/status/2069114432379068770?s=61&t=LYVEHh2mqFy1oUJAdCfe-Q
Have Cooper at 16's from a mental aberration some time ago.
I would be very concerned if it was Ed Miliband. He has some relevant experience but the policies he has promoted in Environment through both net zero and in the North Sea have been hugely damaging and anti-growth.
Louise Haigh, in my opinion, has neither the skills or experience for it but its not unusual for the person who has run a successful campaign for the leader to get it. I suspect she is undervalued.
Streeting has shown he is quick and robust in the way he has faced down the most powerful unions in the country at Health. His problem, and the reason he is not a candidate, is that he has very little of a following in the party (like Reeves in that respect) so he doesn't add any great strength to the ticket. He's probably rightly favourite though and I suspect the markets would like it.
I don't think that Yvette Cooper has the stamina for it given her health problems.
Mahmood would be a possibility, especially if Burnham wanted another woman in the role.
Unless Burnham intends to cave in to the handwringers when it comes to immigration and law & order.
The membership live in cloud cuckoo land.
If a worker can produce the same in 4 days what previously was done in 5, then they shouldn’t get a pay cut for not working on the Friday. Frankly they should get a pay rise to recognise their innovation.
As an example of Starmer's regime, is it possible to identify a single genuine courageous hard choice he has made and stuck with WRT the electorate and/or his MPs?
I do expect the rhetoric to change though from moral necessity for the planet to these are the future industries and energy security. I also expect Burnham to be much more engaged than Starmer who handed everything off to Miliband.
Wes as Chancellor
Mahmood is the best Home Secretary in over a decade has to stay
The GOLDEN BULLET
Burnham promises EU Ref 2 in 2031 exactly 15 years after first vote on details to be scoped and set by next GE
Gen Z are overwhelmingly in favour.
5 years time more Leavers dead of old age, it would destroy Reform and split what's left of the Tory Party.
The Second GOLDEN BULLET
Announce an Independent Commission in to PR options for all National and Local Elections to report back before next GE and have a clear Manifesto commitment to implement after next GE.
United the centre left on 2 massive issues and destroy the Right
Interesting Trevor Phillips commented last night that Labour talk much about country first party second, when the evidence is much the opposite from attacking Mahmood immigration policies to the abolition of the 2 child cap where the country are in the opposite position
He also said the dog that didn't bark in Makerfield was Gaza
Just because someone does well in one job doesn't mean that they will do well in a different job.
https://rozenberg.substack.com/p/contempt-case-can-continue?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=79530&post_id=203149304&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1mnpci&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
There are decent examples who didn't.
There's something to be said for having a Chancellor who is dependent on the PM's patronage.
Conversely, giving Milliband the post would be a declaration of weakness, and give him way too much say in determining government policy
Haigh should be in a more internal Labour Party facing role
I'd demote
Lammy
Kyle
Turley
Move J Reynolds so Haigh could have Chief Whip options or Turkey role
Powell in for Kyle.
I just read Viewcode's article from the New Statesmen and if the letters are anything to go by he was loathed. Not one was prepared to say 'You did your best'. Opportunist was as good as it got
Rent-a-gobs like Crick now come in and excite a few Tories with 'Burnham will be worse' which may be true but to base it on a single interview......and with his recent judgements?
On that same New Statesman page I was taken to this. Difficult to listen to which is presumably why the two hosts were banned from coming to the UK for a debate at the Oxford Union. Warning. An Israeli General killed in action
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxGf5OFFK0U
I think Wes will be CoE, personally.
BTW massive thunderstorms and lightning over part of southern England last night. Map of strikes here:
https://www.lightningmaps.org/?lang=gb#google_vignette;z=7;t=3;y=50.0383;x=-0.5651;d=2;dl=2;dc=0;ts24=1;m=oss;s=0;o=0;b=0.00;ts=0;
He derives little benefit from being quite so honest - and if you look at the comments below, attracts a great deal of flack for expressing it.
The pale white blokes who complain about there being too many pale white blokes elect another pale white bloke.
It’s hardly innovation. They’re doing the same job with no different tools or resources just putting more effort in
If they can do in four days the work of five give them more
Typical useless public sector leech. The world owes you a living and a good salary.
I have never taken part in a coup against any Leader of the Labour Party and I am not going to start now. 2/3
https://x.com/AndyBurnhamGM/status/747036912641318912
A friend of mine who works for PHE in a senior role (and was hoping to get redundancy but wouldn't touch Streeting's offer with a bargepole) thought the reason he resigned was to ensure he dodged the bullet over a £5 billion bill caused by his incompetence and could blame his successor.
Is that true? I don't know. It's an anecdote from one insider. But if even part of it is, we don't want him as Chancellor, even leaving aside the links to Mandelson and the fact he comes across as a slimy Tristram.
You’re not unique though - presenteeism is embedded and going to be very difficult to eradicate.
Discuss .... but put away the loaded weapons.
This public sector retard thinks public sector workers are ‘innovative’ and deserve a pay rise if they do four days at a normal workrate instead of stretching four days work out to five 🤣🤣
He assumed the players did.
If they’ve only enough work for four days then work four get paid for four
Condescending bitch
You also seem to spend a fair bit of the working week on here. 🙄
Brexit played no part either.
Bit pathetic you require Malcolmg to back you up. The sort of coward who starts a fight in the playground and relies on others to finish it.
She’s hardly far right. She’s managing migration fairly
And yes, The PHE closure has turned into a fiasco for similar reasons: a desire for headlines about slashing "pen pushers" without really understanding what all those support staff do.
It wouldn't bode well for Streeting as Chancellor, as he likes to make the news rather than think through policy.
I’ve never thrown a punch in anger at anyone since I left school.
You’re an entitled public sector leech justifying the unjustifiable.
My issue is not working four days it’s being paid five days to work four. Especially at the largesse of the taxpayer
Hopefully AI will do away with loads of you.
KEIR Starmer has performed one of his characteristic U-turns by walking back yesterday’s resignation, Downing Street has confirmed.
After thinking about it overnight, the prime minister has announced he is remaining in office and consequently that Andy Burnham can get on his little train and sod off back to Manchester.
He said: “If Starmerism is anything, it is making a hugely damaging announcement then changing your mind and ineffectively reversing it. Which is what I do here.
“Why would anyone be surprised? It’s what I did with winter fuel payments, the family farm tax, Mandelson. So I stand before you today to say I am resuming my position as prime minister.
“Your old pal Keir is going nowhere. I’m going to hunker down and weather the Makerfield win with my characteristic stubbornness. I may, in time, offer Burnham a junior Cabinet position and allow him to work his way up.
“You seem too stunned with excitement to speak. I’ve noted this reaction previously. I shall leave the room to reflect on my infallible political instincts but feel free to form a conga line in my absence.”
Voter Eleanor Shaw of Hereford said: “And we’ll do just as we did when he went back on those previous decisions, and ignore it.”
https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/politics/starmer-u-turns-on-resignation-20260623267278
I would advise Burnham to keep her in place for a year or so, to provide some stability, and then make a decision next spring.
A coup is not a situation where 81 MPs have to name a candidate, the other 320 MPs can all support the PM and beat the insurgent soundly. Don't look at Burnham, look at the 400 and at the way in which they would neither keep Starmer in power nor find a single one of their number to replace him.
More work allocated so helping business grow more or more work allocated then headcount reduced
In the public sector it’s not about enhancing productivity or effectiveness it’s about protecting inefficient people.
bought offkept onside.Insist I’m at the end of a phone even if you never ring me that’s a working day
The United Kingdom has been, is, and will remain among the world’s leaders. Here in Ukraine, we deeply value Britain, and every meeting and every conversation we have had has always been filled with real substance.
Thank you for always being in touch, always engaged, and always striving to do what is needed and what will truly help.
I wish the United Kingdom and all British people every success as well as realisation of your national goals. We have confidence in Britain.
Keir, you are always a welcome guest in Ukraine.
@Keir_Starmer
https://x.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/2069013990080917574
Rough analogy incoming. A top sprinter can run 100 m in 10 s or less. That speed corresponds to running a marathon in just over an hour. Obviously that's silly, because what humans can do for short periods of time isn't the same as what they can do sustainably for longer times.
The more hours worked, the more useful work done, sure. But diminishing returns set in at some point, and there's no particular reason to think that doesn't apply here. It may be galling to be told that 4 efficient days generate more output than 5 inefficient days. It may be even more galling to be told that 5 efficient days don't work in the long run, because minds and bodies don't work like that. But it's not necessarily untrue.
(Consider all those top businessmen whose work includes schmoozing with other top businessmen at all the events on the social calendar. Or science monkeys drinking tea because there is only so much creative juice a brain will generate per week.)
And in the case of the South Cambridgeshire experiment, there's another practical problem. Given the rival attractions of biotech firms, the cost of living and so on, they couldn't recruit staff on standard local government Ts and Cs. So you end up with agency staff who cost way more and deliver less. Not because they're bad people, but because they're transient. The 4 day model gave a recruitment lever that the council was able to pull. People, like things, cost what they cost.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/nhs-recovery-continues-with-above-target-productivity-growth
Certainly it is very much the focus of my Trust's SMT, with us having regular meetings to look at obstacles to improving further and how to overcome these.
We have gone a bit soft in this country.