It’s all change in Kemi world tonight as the Tories draft in big guns to try to reverse their fortunes. Lord Mark McInnes, former head of the party in Scotland, has been hired as the new CEO of CCHQ. The news was announced in an all staff email to CCHQ this afternoon…
The email praised McInnes as an effective and experienced campaigner – he does have deep experience of the party and elections. It’s understood that Rachel Maclean’s role restructuring CCHQ has come to an end but she remains Director of Strategy. The appointments have been approved by the Party Board…
It’s no small task for CCHQ. But McInnes is a serious operator with campaigning credibility…
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.”