Shadow Paymaster General Richard Holden wrote to Rachel Reeves last night demanding answers on her career. Holden says Reeves “will be aware of various reporting over the weekend relating to your employment history,” and that the “allegations raised, including that you misrepresented your role at HBOS, and then edited your CV after this being discovered, are not trivial matters.” Downing Street is maintaining wilful blindness over the situation…
Holden says “standards in public life are upheld by rigorous accountability and transparency” and he is writing “seeking clarity.” To that end the Tories are firing six broad-sweep questions at Reeves…
He adds some politicking for good measure by claiming “this is equally important as many businesses and working people already feel as if Labour had not been honest with them.” The pressure is not letting up on the Chancellor…
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.”