David Lammy is currently in Canada for a two-day G7 summit at the river resort of La Malbaie. He has so far had a meeting with Canada’s foreign affairs minister and has eight sessions in total to attend and will also be doing media today including a podcast interview. He’s been training up for it…
A freedom of information request from Guido has revealed that the Foreign Office has ramped up its ministerial media training – at the taxpayer’s expense. In December Labour said in a written answer that £1,848 had been spent on media training for “junior ministers” like stilted performer Hamish Falconer. The FCDO specifies that figure has risen in the subsequent three months to £4,948 on “media training for Ministers.” No reference to junior there – has Lammy had a few sessions with Leonie Mellinger?
That’s about £1,000 a month since Christmas on media training. This Lammy podcast interview better be good…
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.”