As Guido noted, the knives were out yesterday following the unsurprising defection of former Rossendale and Darwen MP Jake Berry to Reform. Most reactions were a bit flat: “oh, hasn’t he already gone”…
Insiders point to the upcoming potential creation of a directly elected mayor of Lancashire. Angela Rayner is overseeing the reforms in the government’s programme on English devolution. Ironically, Labour is creating a mayoralty that Reform will have a very strong chance of winning…
The establishment of the mayoralty is controversial. It is currently unclear whether Labour will create the post from central government powers – or leave the decision to local authority leaders in the county. The new Reform UK leader of Lancashire County Council Stephen Atkinson, a former Conservative, has called for a public referendum on the matter. If that all goes ahead it could be game on for Farage’s party, but candidacy for such a powerful post would not be uncontested inside Reform…
Andy Haldane, Burnham’s recent adviser on the economy who has not taken up a No10 job, told Andrew Marr on LBC:
“The market now suspects that this is a traditional tax-and-spend socialist government with better TikTok videos…
imposing windfall taxes on oil & gas or on banks or upping capital gains tax would […] repeat the mistake that Rachel made […] The Achilles heel, the fiscal Achilles heel of this government thus far has been its unwillingness and/or inability to cut public spending.”