Gordon Brown hasn’t incurred any travel expenses in his ‘global’ role for Starmer. In fact, it looks like he hasn’t done much at all…
Brown was appointed the Prime Minister’s Special Reviewer on Global Finance and Cooperation on 9 May. Since then Guido’s FoI Unit has established he “hasn’t undertaken any travel in connection with his role” and doesn’t have any of his own staff. Cabinet Office business units help him out when “as and when their expertise are pertinent to the review” at no extra cost…
All Brown has been been given is:
Harriet Harman only took the laptop and phone for her fake role before she started calling for Starmer to resign on various podcasts – Labour loyalty for you. She doesn’t have a dedicated office either…
Downing Street has admitted Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman will not attend Cabinet in their unpaid, potemkin roles as ‘Special Envoy on Global Finance and Cooperation’ and Adviser on Women and Girls’ respectively. As was obvious the moment these positions were announced, they exist purely as a firefighting exercise. A bit like bringing a water pistol to a forest fire…
Asked specifically what Brown would be doing, the spokesman told the Lobby hacks:
“…Obviously the global finances are very sharply in focus because of the conflict… there’s nobody better qualified in international financial arrangements and multinational arrangements to make our economy stronger… Gordon Brown is uniquely qualified for this role… he will now focus on international finance partnerships to support defence, security, and the economy.”
You’d think the incumbent Chancellor would be uniquely qualified to do those things. She apparently is too busy rowing with her sister at children’s birthday parties…
Two former Labour leaders back in No10 with jobs today:
Gordon Brown as Prime Minister’s Special Envoy on Global Finance: “The PM has committed to boosting the country’s security and resilience. In this role, Gordon Brown will advise on how global finance cooperation can help to achieve this.”
Harriet Harman as Prime Minister’s Adviser on Women and Girls: “The PM committed to do more to eradicate structural misogyny and achieve a cultural change. This appointment will help to accelerate progress.”
How will it land…
Gordon Brown sold 12,712,000 ounces of gold at a historic market low for revenue of $3.5 billion.
Sold today at $4,721.64 per ounce that would net $60 billion.
Or £44.05 billion.
The latest transparency data shows Gordon Brown met four ministers across two departments in the space of just 48 hours in December. He met David Lammy in the MoJ to discuss “devolution“, and then had a chat with prisons minister James Timpson. At the Cabinet Office, he met Darren Jones and Nick Thomas-Symonds, the latter logged as a “general discussion on current UK politics“. His old friend and / or nemesis Tony Blair still gets his kicks in too. Pat McFadden met him in December for “a discussion about current affairs”. Yvette Cooper even had a private chat with him about “the Middle East” just before Christmas. As if he’s the man you want the Foreign Secretary listening to…
As Guido has previously reported, the New Labour old guard is embedded across Whitehall. Michael Ellam, Brown’s former director of communications, sits as Second Permanent Secretary for EU and international economic affairs in the Cabinet Office. Steve Field, another Brown-era Treasury comms director, was moved over as a Director General beneath him, leading on US trade and the G20. Justin Forsyth, a longtime Blair-Brown SpAd, has also been spotted hanging around Jonathan Powell in the Cabinet Office. When’s the last time bringing in a New Labour alumnus ever went wrong…
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Mandelson would never have been in a position to forward market sensitive information to sick paedo friend Jeffrey Epstein without the patronage of certain former Prime Minister. Gordon Brown brought Mandelson back to Cabinet in one of his major ‘comebacks’…
Now Brown is trying to get the scandal off him as quickly as possible. His office issued an odd statement yesterday calling for a police inquiry into Mandelson’s leaks. He doth protest too much…?
In at least one email forwarded to Epstein, an email address for “John Pond” was in copy. The Guardian – its own extensive support for Mandelson over the years is notable – reports it “understands was the code name used by advisers when forwarding to Brown’s secure email account.” Code name, what?
This doesn’t make sense. Brown was the first PM who used email extensively for his ‘email red box’ – and he was directly emailed notes from his team all the time. His senior officials and advisers all had his official email address…
Multiple former officials have confirmed to Guido that the use of code words under the Brown government like “John Pond” was a tactic to avoid freedom of information laws. Substituting real names like “Gordon Brown” with code names put any document out of the scope of freedom of information requests. One official recalls it was “common practice in the Cabinet”. Blair had introduced FOI. This is just one thread exposed by the files that is bringing Labour crashing down…
The Epstein files show that Mandelson was leaking internal No10 documents and briefings to Epstein while Mandelson was working inside during Brown’s administration. The ex-PM now says:
“I have today asked the Cabinet Secretary to investigate the disclosure of confidential and market sensitive information from the then Business Department during the global financial crisis.
On September 10 last year, I wrote to the Cabinet Secretary to ask him to investigate the veracity of information contained in the Epstein papers about the sale of assets arising from the banking collapse and communications about them between Lord Mandelson and Mr Epstein.
That enquiry led to a response on November 19 that no departmental record could be found of any information or communication from Lord Mandelson to Mr Epstein on these issues.
Given the shocking new information that has come to light in the latest tranche of Epstein papers, including information about the transfer to Mr Epstein of at least one highly sensitive government document as well as other highly confidential information, I have now written to ask for a wider and more intensive enquiry to take place into the wholly unacceptable disclosure of government papers and information during the period when the country was battling the global financial crisis. Given the public interest in this, I have asked that the results of the enquiry be published and done so as soon as possible.”
Reminder: Mandelson was one of if not the key adviser to Labour during the Starmerite reconstruction…
Former Treasury minister and adviser to Burnham in the Makerfield campaign Lord Jim O’Neill, who has turned down a role in his government, said Burnham’s first statement Commons was:
“The last thing investors wanted to hear… gilt yields have risen by a 0.25% in one day, which is a lot. We’ve not had that since Liz Truss days… If your country is under the focus of ‘can they come up with a sensible fiscal strategy’ on a day when the markets think ‘well no, you’re not showing any sign of it’ you’re going to have a tough day…if it stays like this your mortgage rate is going up.”