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…
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.”