Guido understands that the new Education Secretary jetted off for sunnier climes on Thursday last week. Three days after taking up post…
She is due back today or tomorrow. How is Mallorca at this time of year?
Powell will have a quote in the technical education policy release to go out from No10 in the morning. A source close to Powell said her holiday was a “prior family engagement” and insisted she was working throughout. Some people prefer working from the beach…
Powell may also think she deserves a break after spending numerous months organising for Burnham to dethrone Starmer while publicly professing loyalty to the PM. The coup may have been bloodless but it took a sustained effort…
Unfortunately last week was the final week of term for a lot of schools around the country, and Powell has still not made a public visit to one. There’s always next term…
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.”