Bridget Phillipson has told the Guardian: “Being education secretary was amazing … and I’m really proud of what we achieved in that time.” She said she resonated with Starmerites:
“I know how people will feel, those who’ve lost out – I know it hurts. It hurts to lose a job that you have loved and put heart and soul into. But I know that however people feel at the moment, they want to win the next election as much as I do, and they know how high the stakes are.”
It must be especially hurtful seeing as Burnham offered the education job to Reeves first. Reshuffle mayhem…
As the new Women and Equalities minister (a brief she already held) Phillipson also attacked Farage for focusing on Pakistani rape gangs and foreign national offenders, saying:
“We should go after whoever commits violence against women and girls, whatever their background, whatever their ethnicity.”
Labour trying its hardest to forget the Casey report which said the ethnicity of rape gangs had been wilfully “shied away from.” Embarrassed established politicians and media have carefully slotted that one away…
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.”