Andy Burnham will stroll into No10 this time next week without facing a contest and without virtually any meaningful scrutiny. His ten-year sabbatical from SW1 has been helpful in laundering his reputation. As if he isn’t a career politician who spent years with a ministerial red box…
Guido kept the receipts. This is what Andy Burnham did the last time he was in Westminster. You never really hear him talk about it because he achieved so little…
Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office (2005-2006)
- Responsible for implementing the Identity Cards Act 2006, Labour’s compulsory biometric ID scheme. Called the technology “a major breakthrough” against identity fraud…
- The scheme was scrapped in 2010 having produced roughly 13,200 cards. Burnham now poses as a sceptic of Starmer’s doomed digital ID plans…
Minister of State for Health (2006-2007)
- Personally signed off Mid Staffordshire’s foundation trust application, on a submission running to four lines, as its wards were falling apart. NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson told the public inquiry that “usually ministers would expect much more detail”…
- Burnham’s own inquiry evidence cited a predecessor who had refused an application on quality grounds. The check was real… he didn’t use it…
Chief Secretary to the Treasury (2007-2008)
- Helped write the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review, locking in spending rises on the eve of the financial crash. His seven months coincided with the run on Northern Rock and HMRC losing 25 million child benefit records.
- Peak PFI. Monitor warned the Treasury and DH in 2007 that Peterborough’s PFI scheme could bankrupt the trust. It went ahead anyway, and Peterborough became the most loss-making trust in the NHS…
Culture Secretary (2008-2009)
- Told the Telegraph the internet was “quite a dangerous place” and confirmed cinema-style age ratings for websites were an option, with ISPs pushed into child-safe-only packages. The idea went nowhere…
- Published a written apology to Shami Chakrabarti after she threatened to sue him for libel over comments made in Progress magazine. He claimed she held “late-night, hand-wringing, heart-melting” phone calls with David Davis before backing down…
- Flagship £140 million Free Swimming scheme scrapped in 2010 after the PwC evaluation found it was “not providing best value for money“. It was concluded subsidised swims would have happened anyway. In fact, some studies later found adult participation in free swimming areas actually fell. So that was £140 million to make swimming slightly less popular…
- Said David Davis should foot the £80,000 bill for his by-election and claimed he was “insulting his electorate“.
Health Secretary (2009-2010)
This is the big one…
- Mid Staffs. Refused a full public inquiry into hundreds of needless deaths. He and Alan Johnson between them turned down multiple requests. Later Burnham said he feared an inquiry “would damage the trust beyond repair“. The coalition government ordered the public inquiry, which found around 50 warning signs ministers and managers failed to act on. A whopper…
- The ‘denial machine’. Labour health ministers, Burnham included, received over 1,500 warnings about the 14 trusts later on Keogh’s high-mortality review. Professor Sir Brian Jarman says his mortality data was suppressed, calling the DH “a denial machine”. Ex-CQC chair Baroness Young alleged ministers leaned on her to tone down criticism of the NHS, pressure peaking under Burnham pre-election. In April 2010, weeks before polling day, every NHS trust had to register with the new CQC, with conditions attached where there were safety concerns. Morecambe Bay, despite a cluster of maternity deaths including baby Joshua Titcombe, got a clean bill of health. The Kirkup inquiry later called the clean registration “another missed opportunity” to stop the scandal…
- Swine flu. Confirmed an order for up to 132 million vaccine doses twelve days into the job. The cost of the response reached £1.2 billion, with around £500 million of avoidable over-purchase and contracts too rigid to cancel. £74 million of Tamiflu was written off through poor record-keeping. Pandemrix, rolled out under taxpayer indemnity, caused narcolepsy in around 100 children…
One week ’till B-Day…
