A hot mic moment captured by Metro’s social media guru Craig Munro of some drinks held by new Cabinet appointees. Shabana Mahmood (former Justice Secretary), Wes Streeting, and Alex Norris (new Justice Secretary) were chatting about Labour’s policy of early release of prisoners:
Streeting: “You know he’s the enemy now, Justice Shabana?”
Mahmood: “No he’s not!”
Streeting: “He wants to let them all out.”
Mahmood: “You know who’s boss!”
…
Mahmood: “When do you do your swearing in?”
Norris: “A couple of weeks, I guess.”
Mahmood: “Tell me when it is, I’ll come around. I want to come.”
They’re tackling the issue with a fair degree of levity…
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.”