When you’ve got a majority of 167, how do you keep control? The answer, it seems, is jobs for the boys (and girls). Another round of government appointments made a week ago has seen yet more new MPs promoted. Alex Barros-Curtis, Joe Morris and Jack Abbott are among the 2024 intake who ascended the first rung on the ministerial pecking order by being named parliamentary private secretaries (PPS). But it was the appointment of Mark Ferguson as a bag carrier at the Ministry of Housing which caught Steerpike’s eye.
The Gateshead Central MP gushed on LinkedIn that he is ‘especially excited to serve our Deputy Prime Minister and my friend Angela Rayner, who is driving forward change at pace’. But it seems there is a growing contingency of Labour MPs who would disagree with Ferguson’s assessment. Steerpike hears Ange’s colleagues think she is not doing a particularly good job with the housing brief – with Ferguson’s hire, in addition to her two current PPSs, believed to be a bid to help the ‘struggling’ politician who is experiencing difficulty keeping on top of her workload, according to a rival Labour MP.
It’s not the first time the DPM has been slighted by her colleagues. At The Spectator’s December parliamentarian awards, her Cabinet colleague Wes Streeting announced to the crowd: ‘The deputy prime minister is here!’ Peering not in her direction but to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, he nodded: ‘Good to see you, Pat.’ As one aide recently remarked to Tom Baldwin, there is a view Rayner requires ‘adult supervision’ from other departments on her legislative projects, while other colleagues have suggested ‘she’s not quite up to’ the job. Ouch.
Our Ange has a hefty month in front of her as she gears up for the passage of her Employment Rights Bill through parliament. Lucky she has an extra pair of hands to help now, eh?
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