The hard left think tank IPPR has continued its infiltration of Downing Street. Talk about the revolving door…
The Health Service Journal and Bloomberg report that Tom Kibasi – who worked on Starmer’s leadership campaign – has been brought into No10 to work with Morgan McSweeney on “a specific strategy project for several months.” Grasping at straws…
Guido revealed in February that Kibasi – who used to head up the IPPR – was appointed by DHSC to work on NHS policy. That hasn’t lasted and he will now attempt to shore up Downing Street’s strategy ahead of Conference and the October Omnishambles budget. He has a history of support for gargantuan tax hikes by taxing capital gains and dividends at income tax rates…
Kibasi joins the other IPPR head honchos in Downing Street, the majority of whom are working on policy. Judge a Prime Minister’s policy direction by the company he keeps…
Wes Streeting is to hire a Labour activist as an impartial civil servant to the Department for Health’s “10 Year Health Plan” team. Tom Kibasi, former director of hard-left think tank IPPR, is the newest crony appointment…
Kibasi, who ran IPPR from 2016 to 2019, helped direct Starmer’s leadership bid – hosting meetings, directing the key advert, and writing lines. He was passed over for a job once the race was over in 2021 and subsequently turned on Starmer’s ‘hard on Corbyn’ approach…
The left-wing wonk has long publicly backed Labour with a history of support for gargantuan tax hikes by taxing capital gains and dividends at income tax rates. Now he’s helping to direct health policy as a supposedly non-partisan civil servant. He can join some of Streeting’s other crony appointments…
Former Starmer campaign director, Tom Kibasi, on Sir Keir’s dead end leadership…
“just as Ed Miliband had before him, Starmer has attempted a clumsy embrace of “blue Labour” and the politics of faith, flag and family… It is a political dead end. If Starmer were to depart as leader tomorrow, he would not leave a trace of a meaningful political project in his wake.”
Speaking on Times Radio, former Home Secretary David Blunkett spoke about overdiagnosis of mental problems:
“Let’s distinguish those who are really severely mentally ill, diagnosed with things that require prolonged medical and diagnostic treatment. My wife and I talk about this a lot, because she’s a retired GP, about the fact that you can be sad without being ill. You can be momentarily depressed because your boyfriend or girlfriend’s just thrown you and you’re not mentally ill. You can even have mild issues, which can be dealt with with the right kind of support, but it doesn’t make you mentally ill. So we’ve got a real task, I think, to get the psychology, if you like, of this over. But there are things where you definitely need medical intervention, and there are other things where you need good friends, you need good connectivity, and you need a job.”