Burnham vows to unveil plans to “help” with the cost of living tomorrow, including where the money will come from. A “ten-year plan” will follow later in the year, even though the shelf life of a Prime Minister these days is about five minutes. He also announced his first instruction as PM would be to “end rough sleeping”…
Cabinet appointments are coming this afternoon. Stay tuned to Guido…
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.”