A hot mic moment captured by Metro’s social media guru Craig Munro of some drinks held by new Cabinet appointees. Shabana Mahmood (former Justice Secretary), Wes Streeting, and Alex Norris (new Justice Secretary) were chatting about Labour’s policy of early release of prisoners:
Streeting: “You know he’s the enemy now, Justice Shabana?”
Mahmood: “No he’s not!”
Streeting: “He wants to let them all out.”
Mahmood: “You know who’s boss!”
…
Mahmood: “When do you do your swearing in?”
Norris: “A couple of weeks, I guess.”
Mahmood: “Tell me when it is, I’ll come around. I want to come.”
They’re tackling the issue with a fair degree of levity…
Vocal Labour backbencher and left-wing bannerman Rachael Maskell has opposed Shabana Mahmood’s mooted entry to No11.
Maskell, who previously had the whip suspended after her activity as ringleader in the welfare rebellion, was named “the archetypal Labour MP” by the Times. She said of Mahmood’s inbound promotion on Times Radio:
“I don’t think Shabana would be the right person for Chancellor. I do think Ed Miliband would be a suitable candidate. Not only have I seen the way that he has led his department, and if any department in government needs leadership it is the Treasury, but also I think tying in with the climate agenda is crucial when we know that the expenditure of governments into the future is going to be addressing the challenges which climate is throwing up at us.
I do think he has got the skills and ability,experience to be able to drive forward a different agenda from Treasury, which is absolutely crucial, but also to push that out across the country as opposed to this real centralisation which has happened in the Treasury for decades upon decades.”
The large soft-left component of the PLP loves Ed Miliband and mostly despises Mahmood for being too right-wing on immigration. Some Labourites insist she will be more left-wing on the economy than expected…
The early grumbling from Labour MPs is indicative of the difficulties Burnham will have in keeping the PLP happy while pursuing something other than a leftist agenda. Watch that early Andy goodwill disappear in a puff of smoke…
Burnham will also have difficulty marrying the slightly more business-friendly sides of his organisation – James Purnell and Varun Chandra, for example – with the radical leftist advisers he has kept close like Miatta Fahnbulleh. They will come to a head and good luck avoiding briefings to the media then…
Allies of Shabana Mahmood are maintaining the line that she wants to stay in the Home Office. There is certainly a lot of personnel churn at the senior level there…
Mahmood’s department has recently hired an agency for £37,000 to find a new Director of Communications in the department. Did the last one not manage to communicate Mahmood’s priorities correctly?
As Guido revealed in a recent Labour Wars column Shabana has also now sacked her Principal Private Secretary – the influential mandarin who links the Secretary of State to everything else on the Civil Service side. She brought this one in from the MoJ after removing the sitting Home Office PPS on her arrival to the department…
Mahmood’s chances of going to the Treasury are up after a series of briefings last night claimed that Miliband would not get the gig. Yvette Cooper is spoken of highly. Allies of Pat McFadden still have hope that he might be offered the job, according to conversations overheard by Guido last night…
Mahmood has offered Nigel Farage a meeting with the Home Office to discuss security measures for him and “those in public life.”
322 Labour MPs nominated Andy Burnham yesterday, making it impossible for any other MP to get enough nominations to challenge him. Shock and horror…
78 MPs didn’t sign their name by 5 p.m. – they may have done so since:
The Deputy Speaker, PLP chairman, and party chairman are not allowed to vote. Starmer and two cabinet ministers the last holdouts…
The government thinks that Pakistan will refuse to take Rochdale grooming gang leader Shabir Ahmed back, despite Shabana Mahmood briefing that she has discovered a workaround for the loophole that prevents his deportation. Will Labour get heavy-handed with the Pakistani government…
The Times reports that Pakistan is demanding the extradition of two political dissidents from Britain in exchange. Which the government won’t do…
The country received more than £100 million in development assistance from Britain last year and its nationals were awarded circa 150,000 visas to the UK. The Centre for Migration Control said: “The Pakistani government is behaving deplorably. Banning all visa grants to Pakistani nationals is now essential. Crucially, this must include extension visas for those already in Britain, as well as grants of settlement and naturalisation.” A visa ban or withdrawal of assistance could be used as leverage. Shabana Mahmood’s mettle is now put to the test…
Mail commentator Dan Hodges – who was kind to Burnham during the Makerfield campaign – now concludes: “The truth is Andy Burnham doesn’t have a 10 year plan. He’s barely got a 10 week plan.“