Housing Secretary and Starmer’s chief loyalist Steve Reed told Sky News:
“While I think through all of this – and the reason it’s so important it’s done in an orderly way – is the public expects us to focus on delivering the change we were elected to deliver less than two years ago.
The public do not want a general election.
That’s not just my instinct, you can look at the polls, that tell us the vast majority do not.
They want us to get on with the job.
We were elected on a manifesto, and Andy has made clear he’s committed to that manifesto as well.
So of course, there’s going to be changes of emphasis and changes of approach within that.
But when it comes to the fundamentals, Andy has been clear, he will stick to the fiscal rules that have delivered this country stability in the economy for the first time in over 15 years.”
He’s wrong on those polls…
Speaking at his speech on how to achieve “progressive capitalism” Wes Streeting fired a dig and Andy Burnham:
“Bond markets are not bond villains and fiscal rules matter.”