More than six months after his demotion appointment as ‘DPM’ in the last reshuffle, David Lammy has finally been given a full list of responsibilities tied to his potemkin title. His profile on the gov.uk site was updated today…
The full list is available on the gov.uk site, for those with time to kill. Previously, the list was empty. Among the highlights:
“The Deputy Prime Minister:
- represents the Prime Minister and HM Government at leader-level internationally when the Prime Minister is unable to attend, promoting and protecting British interests overseas
- maintains and strengthens relationships with Vice Presidents, Deputy Prime Ministers and deputy leaders of key international partners, including the United States; advancing UK strategic priorities in international engagement, including: jobs and growth, security and the rule of law, climate ambition and the transition to net zero, tackling irregular migration.
- champions the rule of law globally, working with the Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary and Attorney General
- The Deputy Prime Minister is supported by an Office of Deputy Prime Minister which coordinates work across departments and supports on the delivery of the Deputy Prime Minister’s priorities.”
As Guido has already reported, the physical space used for the ‘DPM office’ has been repurposed into Darren Jones’s pointless ‘command unit’. It turns out being Deputy Prime Minister mostly amounts to bombing at the despatch box, and cosplaying as Foreign Secretary with a few overseas jollies. The latest transparency data reveals Lammy billed the taxpayer for his wife to tag along to the Vatican. It also shows he had just ten publicly registered meetings across three months in his actual brief as Justice Secretary. Less than one per week…
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.”