The Labour government’s summer internship scheme is blocking the children of full-time trade union officials. A rare policy win from Labour…
Government now restricts the scheme to working class individuals. This is defined by their parent’s profession when the applicant was aged 14, using ONS and Social Mobility Commission classifications…
Parliamentary questions pursued by Tory parliamentarians have clarified what technical class a “trade union official who works for a local authority under 100% facility time” is: “Under the simplified National Statistics Socio-economic classification (NS-SEC) framework, this occupation is classified as analytic class 3: Intermediate occupations.” Unless they’ve worked out a loophole…
This means, for example, that Rayner’s son, Ryan (now 28) couldn’t take advantage of the scheme. When he was 14 Rayner was a Stockport Council trade union pilgrim. Tory shadow Cabinet Office minister Mike Wood said: “What an embarrassing own goal. Labour’s incompetence knows no bounds: they can’t even wage a class war properly.” Quick Andy – do something….
Timestamps embedded in Andy Burnham’s leadership campaign site source code reveal his team set up the site on 6th May, even before the local election bloodbath that terminally damaged Starmer’s premiership. Obviously he knew which way the wind was blowing and wasn’t wasting any time…
It was also eight days before Josh Simons stood down to make way for Burnham’s candidacy in Makerfield. Which gives an idea of the timeline in the lead up to their pact.
The source code shows he previously considered “For the People” as his slogan, identical to the one used by Kamala Harris’s doomed presidential campaign. At least Burnham’s plot to grab the top job is likely to work…
Burnham has long said he would all but scrap the whipping system and he reiterated his intention at the end of May in an interview with the Times:
“Where it goes wrong is if a small group of people at the top use the whip as an instrument of threat. I think the government will be better served by the collective wisdom of the PLP, personally … the main thing I would come to is authenticity. Let your representatives be authentic representatives of their places. Don’t punish them for taking a position that actually connects with people they are serving. Don’t send them into TV studios with lines to take on everything.”
Good luck to Labour MPs – whom Burnham does not even know – being sent on broadcast without any lines. Nevertheless it was not always so. Guido has uncovered a letter Burnham wrote in his SpAdding days in 1998 to the Guardian:
“Hugo Young says Labour’s moves to strengthen discipline amongst MPs are evidence of “democratic sickness” (Comment, May 28).
He couldn’t be more wrong. Steps to make MPs stick to the script on which they were elected strengthen democracy by ensuring voters get what they voted for. People do not vote for individuals and all their eccentricities. They vote for the policies of the party which the candidate purports to represent. Only journalists bemoan the lack of “independent thinkers” in Parliament. It is an MP’s job to honour pledges given to the electorate not entertain the lobby.”
Which is it? Another Burnham U-turn…
Downing Street says Keir Starmer will stay on as the MP for Holborn and St Pancras after he leaves Number 10 in a few weeks. He won’t be triggering a by-election – unless he U-turns, obviously…
Bridget Phillipson and Liz Kendall confronted Kemi Badenoch after PMQs to complain about the Tory leader’s language in the session. Badenoch provided a blistering assessment of the Education Secretary as a “spiteful class warrior” who is also incompetent. She also brought up Guido’s story from yesterday on what teachers think of Phillipson…
Liz Kendall allegedly complained about the language being “outrageous,” to which Badenoch replied: “I’m never going to stop talking about how spiteful you are.”
Phillipson said in response: “The public are going to find out who you really are.” Badenoch’s personal poll ratings continue to go up…
UPDATE: At some point in the exchange Badenoch is meant to have said: “I will never stop fighting you. You are destroying children’s lives.”
UPDATE II: Bridget Phillipson said: “Kemi lost her head at PMQs – and afterwards too. It’s not the first time. She’s compared me to a Gestapo officer. I wonder what it is about a working class woman driving record investment in state schools by ending private schools’ tax breaks that the Tories hate so much.”
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.”