FORGIVE ME for not falling for PT Burnham’s Circus act. It is a complete and utter fraud, taking us back to the supposed feelgood days of Blairism but without the policy intent of modernising public services that came from a long period in opposition and the grudging acceptance of many Thatcherite economic reforms.
You did not need to look far to see that we were about to witness a very British Coup d’état. The implied claim to democratic legitimacy when the British people were denied any agency and the elevation of a sub-lieutenant who could not reveal his intentions because he had no idea what he would do other than seize power – only the mainstream media appears to have been excited by it.
The British public, having been treated so cynically with false promises and now enduring their seventh prime minister in ten years, can be forgiven for displaying a collective jaundiced yawn.
The rousing seal-clapping send-off given to Sir Keir Starmer from the same backbenchers who had turned him into a political eunuch was grossly hypocritical. The flatulent faux emotion, as if Starmer had to go because of a sudden terminal illness; the cheesy statements praising his (lack of) achievements; and the hyper self-evaluation by Starmer himself of leaving the country in a better state than which he inherited, all made for a nauseous socialist pageantry that could only be rivalled in Moscow, Beijing or Pyongyang.
Rather than hang around for the weekend changing of the guard at Downing Street I chose instead to spend the time taking my extended family to Legoland at Windsor. My kids and grandkids got to work rebuilding Britain with Lego brick, utterly unaware of the deals being cut by the retired Mayor of Greater Manchester as he introduced New Labour 3.0 – and I’ve every reason to believe they have a far better chance of success than PT Burnham does.
The Cabinet appointments started surfacing as I drove North on Monday afternoon. There were the usual trade-offs to placate the different warring wings of Labour backbenchers. John Healey was appointed Chancellor; not just a reward for his role in bringing down Keir Starmer by resigning from as Defence secretary, but a tactical ploy to deny the adherents of Net Zero zealot, Ed Miliband, or Home secretary Shabana Mahmood. Now neither particular sect could claim they had the prime minister under their control.
Mahmood stayed where she is, supposedly at her own request, while Miliband is now Foreign Secretary, a position his brother David had occupied back in the Gordon Brown premiership. It was David Miliband who signed the Lisbon Treaty that the British public was promised and then denied a referendum on.
It was Ed Miliband, as Labour Leader, who whipped Labour MPs to vote against a limited USA-UK bombing mission to punish and stop President Bashar al-Assad from using chemical warfare on his own people in 2013. Over 1,400 civilians had died from the use of sarin nerve gas and more deaths followed thanks to allied inaction.
With Ed Miliband in the Foreign Office we can now expect the Foreign Aid budget to start climbing significantly again and for defence and foreign policy to be a mirror image of decisions already taken in Brussels. Putting British interests first will be little more than a Miliband euphemism for extending the influence of the European project. Moves on the defence front will be central while the EU-UK reset will be relaunched with unbridled enthusiasm.
Replacing Miliband with responsibility for Net Zero will be Miatta Fahnbulleh, who previously wrote of delivering Net Zero by 2040 – ten years earlier than the target of 2050. If Ed Miliband was seen as an unbending Net Zero zealot (and he was, no use of oil & gas revenues for defence spending or to reduce the cost of living etc), Fahnbulleh is expected to be even more devoted to her cause; a sort of Nurse Ratched of Net Zero
Thanks to the dire need for tax revenues and the pressure of the unions (not to say the collapsing Aberdeen economy) Burnham is likely to have appointed Fahnbulleh on the understanding she approves the extraction of oil and gas from the Jackdaw and Rosebank fields (because they already had licences granted previously) – but rules out any new exploration or development licenses (which would retain Labour’s manifesto pledge).
There is no doubting Labour truly is a big tent; the Burnham circus continued with a carnival of the chancers as Angela Rayner, the former Secretary for Housing and Local Government who resigned her position after failing to pay her Stamp Duty of £40,000 on a house sale less than a year ago, took up the same position as if nothing had ever happened.
Fortunately for the serendipitous Rayner, HMRC found no deliberate wrongdoing or carelessness over her tax affairs, and she has apparently settled her bill, clearing the way for her rehabilitation.
Not to be outdone in Burnham’s theatre of the absurd, Louise Haigh, another early Starmer casualty after she was found to have been convicted of “fraud by false representation” when previously employed by Aviva, was appointed First Secretary of State, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office. Her role should have included responsibility for the Public Sector Fraud Authority but she has been stripped of that role to avoid further embarrassment or potential for ridicule in the future.
Meanwhile Lucy Powell – who previously wanted to end any benefits of charitable status for independent schools – has been appointed England’s education Secretary. Such a policy would only make independent schooling even more exclusive than it already is, leaving it available to only the ultra-wealthy and foreign elites. She had been sacked in the first Keir Starmer reset-reshuffle not long after making a controversial statement that downplayed the need for a Rape Gang enquiry, dismissing it as a “dog whistle” issue.
So there we have it; Healey, Rayner, Haigh and Powell all back in government, with Miliband as Foreign Secretary – and the first policy announcement is for an unfunded tax cut.
Removing 5 per cent VAT on electricity bills – to be paid for by axing plans for a Digital Identity Card. It is of course a con trick, as the Digital Card programme is itself currently unfunded – so there are no savings to redistribute. A tax rise elsewhere is inevitable in Healey’s first Budget.
So, looking at the broad sweep of Burnham’s first moves, he is essentially building New Labour 3.0 – all spin and style over substance to create happy warm vibes. It is not an especially good start to saving a Britian that is broken in so many ways but you can expect Labour cheerleaders to try and ramp up the excitement and those happy clappy reggae vibes. The best chance of Burnham saving Labour from itself and retaining power is if a mood is created that allows him to announce he will ask the permission of the King to call a general election at the Labour Party Conference.
It would scupper the Conservative conference being held immediately after it and seek to capitalise on a hoped for (and choreographed) summer of difficulties for Reform UK.
If, however, there is no Burnham bounce in the polls thanks to the supposed Dr Feelgood remedies then the chances of him deciding to seek a personal mandate will evaporate as quickly as his personal ratings. Look to Thursday October 29th if the likely Burnham plan comes off – failing that, next May’s local elections will be the last chance before the wheels come flying off.
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