Further to Guido’s reporting earlier today on Louise Haigh, it is only fair to mention that she is not the only sitting government minister who voted against renewing Britain’s nuclear defences in 2016. All while Burnham reheats a previous announcement to prove how serious he is about this…
Angela Rayner, Lisa Nandy, Ian Murray and Vicky Foxcroft (both junior DCMS ministers) also voted against Trident’s renewal. That’s three Cabinet ministers who are in favour of nuclear disarmament. Certainly both Haigh and Rayner still hold considerable influence over the Cabinet and the wider PLP. Before the 2024 election, Rayner admitted she “hadn’t changed her mind“, and then gave some waffle designed to stop the ming vase breaking:
“I haven’t changed my mind. The vote that we had some years ago mentioned nothing about multilateral disarmament and what I feel is really important for the long term is that globally we should be looking at disarmament of nuclear weapons, but that has to be done in combination with other countries.”
When they tell you what they really think, believe them…
Burnham confirms he spoke to Trump last night about drilling in the North Sea:
“I indicated in the phone call that we had a week last Monday that I would take a pragmatic approach when it comes to the North Sea, and that is my intention as we go forward from here. There is a resource there. When people are struggling, we can’t ignore that. Hence, me indicating that to the president…”