Guido first reported in October last year that the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister – which had only just got going under Rayner – was for the most part dead under David Lammy. Guido got a call that night from an unfortunate civil servant arguing that ‘DPM’ Lammy definitely still had an ‘office’ – not true…
It was after all a Rayner initiative. No substantial staff were redeployed by the MoJ to cover for Rayner’s rebranded housing civil servants, who obviously just went back to MHCLG. In a final humiliation for Lammy Guido can report the Cabinet Office rooms used by Rayner for the ODPM have now been filled by Darren Jones’ “Command Unit“…
To clarify those are the windowless rooms with only a skylight. If Rayner comes back she can probably give herself an even bigger room – wouldn’t want to break up Darren Jones’ party. In the meantime David Lammy gets to go around calling himself the ‘DPM’ and – oh, that’s it…
Former Treasury minister and adviser to Burnham in the Makerfield campaign Lord Jim O’Neill, who has turned down a role in his government, said Burnham’s first statement Commons was:
“The last thing investors wanted to hear… gilt yields have risen by a 0.25% in one day, which is a lot. We’ve not had that since Liz Truss days… If your country is under the focus of ‘can they come up with a sensible fiscal strategy’ on a day when the markets think ‘well no, you’re not showing any sign of it’ you’re going to have a tough day…if it stays like this your mortgage rate is going up.”
