Why Purnell resigned
Fraser Nelson 11:00pm
I can reveal that James Purnell was offered education, which he turned down, and decided to resign because he couldn't go on continuing to go out in public and support a PM whom he'd lost faith in months ago. It's an open secret that Purnell supported David Miliband for the leadership last summer. And, in this context, reports of Miliband's resignation, expected tomorrow, made sense - it would have been four Cabinet resignations in four days. But Miliband has apparently denied it - to quit now, and choose the wilderness, takes a certain sort of courage. As Miliband showed us last summer, he doesn't have it.
I believe Purnell when he says he acted alone - if he waited for some co-ordinated attempt he would be waiting forever. Even those close to Purnell had no inkling that he was preparing to do this - the secret was so well-kept that even No.10 didn't know until 9.50pm.
Of course, if Purnell was offered education, that means Ed Balls has porbably been offered the Chancellorship. My hunch is that this was likely to be the trigger for Purnell and, if such a move is confirmed, it could be a trigger for many other ministers. There is something about Balls as Chancellor that is simply incendiary: it would be the ultimate sign of a bunker government. Reduced to Brown, his aides and a few has-beens.
Brown got rid of Blair by getting private secretaries to resign hour after hour. It seems Brown is going to go after Cabinet ministers resign day after day.
UPDATE AT 12.15AM: And now Brown's attack dogs come out. Peter Kilfoyle, who is one of the half dozen remaining Brown loyalists, has just been on Sky News saying that the Cabinet members who have resigned "are fixed on their own careers" (how can he say that of people resigning?), and Purnell "has never had a proper job" (unlike, say, Ed Balls and pre-1983 Gordon Brown) and "shouldn't be in the Cabinet," and "has no political acumen whatsoever". Adam Boulton replied: "If you think he's such an idiot, what does that say about the man who promoted him?"
The counter-attack is that this is a "Blairite coup," as Diane Abbott claimed. Except, Diane, the point of a coup is to take control. And is Tommy Watson a Blairite? Why is John Hutton going against Purnell? Brown's line - this is an attempt at a Blairite restoration - won't wash.
UPDATE AT 12.30AM: No10 has denied that Purnell was offered education. I haven't seen what technical weasel words they have used, but they are fibbing. I am 100% confident. And I suspect this won't be the last set of fibs that No10 tell if the reshuffle keeps falling apart at this rate.
Previous
TevorsDen
June 4th, 2009 11:48pm Report this commentYep - offering Education clearly let the cat out of the bag.
Darling the Doormat has one last chance to find his spine.
BBC saying Milliband has said he is not resigning. Is this before or after he was confirmed at the FO.
Whew! That means Brown is going to stay and Balls is going to be Chancellor.
Is there any precedent for a PM losing his Chancellor his Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary at once?
Remember the Monty Python character - the Black Night ? "Just a flesh wound!"
jaydeeaitch
June 5th, 2009 12:04am Report this comment"support a PM whom he'd lost faith in months ago. It's an open secret that Purnell supported David Miliband for the leadership last summer"
Purnell is a complete t*sser then.
THX1138
June 5th, 2009 12:08am Report this commentI was going to bed but it's all so exciting, I keep flitting over to the BBC to see if Gordo has gone yet.. Nick Robinson is saying that it's all down to Miliband now.
I want Miliband for leader if only to be rid of the old political cliche about he who wields the knife.
I just hope that Dave is up to the job, we'll find out soon enough..
Sorry I'm making even less sense than usual but I'm sure you'll all forgive me this one time.
Ann
June 5th, 2009 12:59am Report this commentPurnell supported the brainless tosser Milipede? What a jerk.
John
June 5th, 2009 1:01am Report this commentDiane Abbott is a brainless twerp. Nobody gives a flying monkey what she says.
Joseph
June 5th, 2009 1:28am Report this commentFraser, serious thing to say no10 are lieing in their denial.
Are you going to produce some evidence?
Dave
June 5th, 2009 1:53am Report this commentGreat news! Another Gucci socialist jumps the sinking ship.
Maybe Mr Purnell's successor can answer my letter written to Mr Purnell over 2 months ago.
Aless Bieri
June 5th, 2009 1:56am Report this commentI think that Purnell is a very different guy to Smith and Blears.
I think Purnell resigned to wait for a challenge to the Brown's leadership, whereas Smith and Blears probably wanted to instigate it.
stevie
June 5th, 2009 2:28am Report this commentHow very clever of you John. Clever boy.
robert
June 5th, 2009 8:06am Report this commentThanks for the "revelation", Fraser. As for the integrity credentials of Purnell, see the article by your colleague Rod Liddle. Does this raise him to the "stature and integrity" of Blears, as martin bright would have it?
MikeF
June 5th, 2009 9:23am Report this commentPurnell has clearly decided that the longterm benefits of foregoing the minister's salary that he might have expected for the next 12 months might be worth more than the money. He thinks that at some point in the future this move might be remembered as an act of principle and self-sacrifice. But his motives are evident in the very first sentence of his resignation letter where he talks about party and not country. That is all this is - posturing self-interest.
Ian C
June 5th, 2009 9:31am Report this commentPurnell has played it exactly right. He will be remembered as the man who saved the Labour Party from Gordon Brown.
Before last night it was James who? He has guaranteed himself recognition - that used to be half way to respect. It probably will be again.
peter
June 5th, 2009 11:20am Report this commentSure we can trust you, Fraser, u lick spittle Cam lackie.
David Short
June 5th, 2009 12:33pm Report this commentThis piece should instead be headlined 'What Purnell says why he resigned'.
Possibly he thinks he has a future in politics. I think not. He lost all proper support in Labour circles when he said he'd make people 'work' for their unemployment benefit. Which begged the question, which was never asked, why people who have paid their national insurance should sweep the streets, taking jobs from street-sweepers, and why they should feel ashamed when there are four times as many people unemployed as there are vacancies.
As for Miliband, I was talking to people in a pub in South Shields (his constituency), and everyone said they and their friends and family will not vote for him.
He won't lose his seat because SS is the only constituency in the UK that has never had a Tory MP since the 1832 Reform Act.
It is the safest Labour seat in the land, and that loyalty has been betrayed by giving it to the son of a prime Hampstead socialist, Ralph Miliband, who was a very early second home earner.
All safe Labour seats will lose support, as they have in every election since 1997.
All Purnell has done has left what he thinks is a sinking ship.
But it probably won't sink.
Chances are we'll have a Lab-Lib Dem government. The result of that would be the ditching of the public schoolboy party that Lab became, a proper withdrawal from silly colonial wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, no ID cards.
And no Old Etonian prime minister until Bojo takes charge.
Hurrah!
patricia
June 5th, 2009 2:51pm Report this commentPurnell was a nothing as a cabinet secretary,
He's proved his lack of judgment by resigning in the way he did,
So now we can look forward to him being a zero as an MP.
Dave
June 5th, 2009 4:13pm Report this commentI agree Patricia - and he didn't answer letters from the 'public' or the 'taxpayer' as we are called these days.
Jonathan Cook
June 5th, 2009 5:30pm Report this commentFraser,
Fantastically done at the questioning of the Prime Minister just now.
I'm looking forward to your analysis of his response to you. I'm sure he is being dodgy somewhere.
P.S. Gordon had a face of death when he moved onto take your question - he clearly knows that you are journalist who won't stand for his normal dross that goes for a response to a journalist.
Back to top