The small matter of defence spending was not mentioned once at this morning’s Cabinet meeting. The elusive Defence Investment Plan is still without a publication date, and ministers are now in furious clashes over proposed cuts to their departmental capital budgets to fund an uplift. Rather than try to resolve this endless farce, the Cabinet nattered about AI and social media all morning instead.
There was also no discussion of Starmer’s looming reckoning courtesy of Andy Burnham. Even though No10 briefed last night that he had meet junior ministers to convince them he’d fight on, and on, and on…
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.”