Thought it would be timely to kick this thread off now that Starmer is being put out to pasture.
Darren Jones has confirmed to Sky News that he won't run against Andy Burnham for the Labour leadership. With his name out of the frame, it looks like Barnham has a clear route to power.
The Financial Times has an article about Barnham.
In terms of his attributes
Quote:
The episode crystallised all Burnham’s strengths: the storytelling, the fight for the underdog, and knowing where the opportunity lay. “He is very good,” notes someone who knows him well, of his political instincts, “at spotting when a door is ajar.”
One official closely involved at the time says the pandemic showed Burnham could do detail and respond to a crisis thoughtfully, as well as instinctively. “One observation I’d make about Andy throughout that period,” they say, “is that while the statistics were very, very important, he never lost sight of the importance of human beings. That’s a very rare quality in a decision maker.”
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And his weaknesses
Quote:
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It also feels disconcerting that, after a decade of covering Burnham, I am unsure what he might do in government. As a mayor, he has had to make few unpopular decisions. “When there’s a clear right and wrong he can communicate extraordinarily,” says one politician who has seen him up close. “But when stuff is difficult and he doesn’t know where to be, he’s all over the place. He’s been busking for a decade.”
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https://www.ft.com/content/9949d99f-...syn-25a6b1a6=1
Burnham has now appointed a chief of staff
Quote:
Who is James Purnell?
We've been reporting this morning that Andy Burnham is set to appoint James Purnell as his Downing Street chief of staff.
So who is he?
Born in London, he also spent a lot of his early life in France, and studied at the University of Oxford.
After an early career at the BBC, he became a special ad iser to Tony Blair in 1997 when Blair entered Downing Street.
Purnell then stood for parliament himself, and was Labour MP for Stalybridge in Greater Manchester between 2001 and 2009.
He entered parliament alongside Burnham, and the two shared an office.
He served as a pensions minister under Blair, before entering the cabinet as culture secretary and then work and pensions secretary under Gordon Brown.
When Purnell was promoted to work and pensions secretary in early 2008, Burnham replaced him in the culture brief.
But he spectacularly resigned from cabinet in 2009, saying he had lost confidence in Brown and called on him to step down as prime minister.
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https://news.sky.com/story/politics-...ction-12593360 [/quote]