Andy burnham

Government signs up Labour’s Andrew Adonis to oversee HS2 delivery

In an impressive cross-party signing, the government has appointed Lord Adonis, the former Labour transport secretary, to oversee delivery of the HS2 railway. Lord Adonis gave birth to the idea of HS2 prior to the 2010 election and has remained a vocal advocate for the project ever since. The transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin said in a statement he was ‘extremely pleased’ that Adonis is joining the board of HS2 Ltd as a non-executive director. Adonis himself described HS2 as a project of ‘national significance’: ‘Patrick McLoughlin has been a powerful advocate for the project and the government has risen to the challenge of thinking about the long-term by putting in place a

Isabel Hardman

Labour in chaos: what are the party’s options?

Labour is in an almighty mess at the moment. Those involved in the leadership campaigns are surprised by how the mood in the party has changed from quite open acceptance of a need to change in the days after the election defeat to angry dissent when change is suggested, as evidenced by the reaction to Harriet Harman’s welfare policies this week. The party isn’t quite having a row about what it should stand for at the next election, preferring instead to argue about how it does opposition for the next eight weeks, most of which are in Parliamentary recess. Here are the various options for what Labour does, both in

Steerpike

Andy Burnham: how Arthur Scargill inspires me

When Martin Freeman endorsed Labour ahead of the election, his credentials were called into question after Steerpike reported that Freeman was a former supporter of Arthur Scargill’s far-left Socialist party. So Mr S was curious to hear Burnham last night reveal his own admiration for Scargill – who formed the Socialist party because he was so angry that Labour had ‘abandoned any pretence of being a socialist party’. As the Tories raised a glass to Lynton Crosby at the election strategist’s bash in Kensington, the Labour leadership hopeful was across town setting out his brand of self-titled ‘aspirational socialism’ over at Soho House, the £1400 private members’ club. During the talk, Burnham – who has

The Iranian regime is anti-Western and anti-Semitic. Can we really trust its nuclear deal?

It is often said that British ambition and influence in the world are on the wane. But there can be few greater demonstrations of this than our country’s lack of attention to one of the biggest issues of our time. I am in Washington at the moment, and have been admiring how intensely the Vienna negotiations have been on the political and news agendas here. But in Britain? Obviously the British Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, has been involved in the P5+1 talks. But it would have been easy to miss the fact. There has been no meaningful criticisms from within the Conservative party to the deal which Philip Hammond has

Isabel Hardman

Andy Burnham may end up supporting Harman’s line on welfare bill anyway

Andy Burnham has been vociferous in his opposition to the Welfare Reform and Work Bill, and made his views clear at a stormy meeting of the Shadow Cabinet this morning. He followed that meeting with a speech to the press gallery about his candidacy to become Labour leader in which he repeated his opposition to that legislation. He even went so far as to lump Harriet Harman in with George Osborne in one of his jokes, which won’t stop sniping from some sections of the party that Harman is behaving in a ‘Tory’ manner (this comes as a great surprise to anyone who has paid even the slightest attention to

Has Andy Burnham’s wife kissed a Tory?

When Andy Burnham attended London Pride, the Labour leadership hopeful proudly sported a t-shirt which read ‘never kissed a Tory’. While Mr S is yet to track down a Tory who found romance with Burnham, there are doubts that the same can be said for his wife, Marie-France van Heel. During Victoria Derbyshire’s Labour leadership hustings this morning, Burnham revealed his wife’s cross-party past: ‘My wife and I have been together for 25 years but in the early days she was on Blind Date and she was the picker, and to add insult to injury she picked Will from Surrey, who ended up being the director of communications for the Conservative party.’ However,

Andy Burnham talks equality at £1400 private members’ club

Throughout his career, Andy Burnham has been keen to point out that he is not one of the ‘metropolitan elite’. The Labour leadership hopeful says that ‘for too long there has been a sense of a metropolitan elite at the top of the Labour party’. So Mr S was curious to learn the venue for a talk he is giving next week. Burnham will appear at the Soho House private members’ club on Tuesday to read ‘a short story about equality and justice’. While Steerpike is sure Burnham’s words will be sincere, he worries that the venue – which is popular with Hugh Grant, Madonna and Kirsty Young – may distract from the message. To

Diary – 2 July 2015

‘Hello. I’m lesbian threesome,’ the young lady tells Taki. ‘And I’m Mongolian rampage,’ says the young man beside her. We’re at Jeremy Clarke’s book launch in the Spectator’s back garden, to which he invited a dozen Low Life readers chosen for submitting the best stories of drunken debauchery. Some were summarised in Jeremy’s column last week, which made for a marvellous party. Throughout the evening, guests tried to match the face to the story. Which reader was kneecapped by a pimp in Amsterdam? Who was the academic who got into a drunken fight with a janitor over the affections of the chemistry teacher? My favourite exchange of the night: ‘Do

There’s only one way to save the crumbling Houses of Parliament. Turn them into a theme park

The Houses of Parliament are falling down. According to the Independent Options Appraisal of the Palace of Westminster Restoration and Renewal Programme – a group of engineers and project managers commissioned to have a butcher’s – the Palace of Westminster is ‘partly sinking, contains asbestos and has outdated cabling’, is ‘infested with rats and mice and in an advanced state of disrepair’ and will take £5.7 billion and 32 years to put right, unless MPs and Lords shuffle off somewhere else for a bit, in which case it’ll be £3.5 billion over six years. Without such repairs, ‘major, irreversible damage’ looms. Several MPs have taken advantage of the report to suggest that

How the three stages of the Labour leadership race could benefit Liz Kendall

Liz Kendall is continuing to push herself as the ‘change everything’ candidate for the Labour leadership. During a speech at Reuters this morning, Kendall called for the party to make a big shift on fiscal responsibility if it has any hope of winning the next election — a task some think is beyond Labour in its current state: ‘If we continue to stick with the politics that we had at the last election or, indeed, over the last seven or eight years, we will get the same result. Einstein said the definition of madness was to continue doing the same thing over and over again and expect to get a different result. We need

Alan Milburn finally confronts Labour with the hard truth about Tony Blair

Alan Milburn has told Labour something it does not want to hear: Tony Blair was as great for the party as Margaret Thatcher was for the Tories. At a breakfast with the Centre for Social Justice this morning, the former health secretary argued that  Labour ‘could not have got it more wrong’ at the last election and urged the party to snap out of its ‘self-delusion’ that New Labour and Blair were all bad: ‘Great leaders always have a big purpose. For Churchill it was victory in war, for Thatcher victory against a stifling state. For Blair it was victory against old-fashioned attitudes and institutions that held our country back. Today, to

Yvette Cooper attacks David Cameron for a ‘blind spot’ on women

Yvette Cooper addressed a lobby lunch today and put on an impressive performance. In contrast to her slightly wooden performance during last night’s debate, Cooper came across as straightforward and articulate — and surprisingly funny. She joked that alongside the ten meetings to sign off the Edstone, there were seven meetings for a ‘fiscally responsible water feature.’ She also told the gathered hacks ‘we want more Haribo!’ in reference to the sweet factory in her constituency. Unsurprisingly, Cooper spoke confidently on the economy, demonstrating her years of experience on the frontbench. On Greece, she argued that ‘the British government should be using its role within Europe to argue for the Eurozone taking

Team Burnham: Liz Kendall’s ‘country should come first’ remark was a ‘cheap point’

The one memorable moment from last night’s Labour leadership debate was Liz Kendall’s remark that ‘country should come first’, with regards to another leadership contest before 2020. It was a swipe at Andy Burnham, who had said that the ‘party should come first.’ Team Kendall is understandably pleased at the Vines and clips of this exchange. It has given her campaign some crucial momentum and ensures that the contest remains a three-horse race. In a debate that was otherwise pretty uneventful, this exchange is likely to stick with both Burnham and Kendall. But a source on Burnham’s campaign suggests that the remark has been misinterpreted: ‘Andy clearly meant “party before

Podcast: Greece and the lessons of Black Wednesday, plus the latest on the Labour leadership contest

As the situation in Greece becomes more serious by the day, is a default or Grexit on the horizon? In this week’s View from 22 podcast, Channel 4’s Paul Mason discusses this week’s Spectator leading article with Ambrose Evans-Prichard from the Daily Telegraph. Which side is being more unreasonable in this stand off, the European Central Bank or Syriza? Is anything drastic likely to happen over the next few weeks? Are the Greek people feeling resentful towards to the rest of the EU? And what effect is the crisis having on the whole European project? The Spectator’s James Forsyth and Stephen Bush from the New Statesman also discuss the ongoing contests for Labour leader and deputy leader. Given that he remains the favourite to win, what does Andy Burnham need to do over the next

Steerpike

Labour’s ‘attack dog’ turns on Laura Kuenssberg over BBC debate

Last night’s Newsnight Labour leadership debate proved to be a rather dull affair with all four hopefuls failing to make a strong impression. While many were quick to suggest that this was down to lacklustre leadership candidates, party members have come up with a different reason the broadcast failed to impress. Step forward Laura Kuenssberg: Labour’s ‘attack dog‘ Michael Dugher — who is backing Andy Burnham for leader — appeared to point the finger of blame at the Newsnight presenter for her chairing of the debate. The shadow transport secretary, who previously worked closely with Labour spin doctor Damian McBride under Gordon Brown, took to Twitter to complain that ‘she never shut up’: The sentiment was shared

Imposter syndrome

As graduates of the country’s best university, most former Cambridge students neither seek nor expect much in the way of public sympathy. Last weekend, however, the frontrunner in the Labour leadership contest, Andy Burnham, attempted to elicit a little. Describing his journey from a Merseyside comprehensive to Cambridge as the thing which ‘brought me into politics’, he told of his bewilderment when, as a prospective English student, he was asked at his interview, ‘Do you see a parallel between The Canterbury Tales and modern package holidays?’ He was, he said, ‘still pondering what the question meant when I arrived at Warrington station six hours later and when the rejection letter

Labour’s first televised leadership hustings were dull and achieved very little

The first televised debate in the Labour leadership contest was a rather dull affair. None of the candidates shone and no one stumbled. Although there were a few moments of interest, everyone conformed to their stereotypes. Andy Burnham was brash and appeared too keen to speak over the other candidates. He spoke about the problems of the ‘Westminster elite’ and how Labour needs to break free from that mould — despite having worked in politics his whole career and even spending time as a special adviser before becoming an MP. Yvette Cooper was the best performer and gave a good response to the question on the welfare state, citing her

Steerpike

Liz Kendall on safe ground for Newsnight debate

Tonight’s Newsnight debate will see the four Labour leadership hopefuls — Liz Kendall, Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Jeremy Corbyn — head to Nuneaton in a bid to boost their campaigns. Given that this week, Kendall’s supporters have been dubbed the ‘New Labour Taliban‘ by a Labour source, relations are likely to be strained between the four. However, Kendall can at least take heart that she is on safe ground in Nuneaton, a seat which Labour failed to win the election. The party’s candidate in the election, Vicky Fowler is backing Kendall. She says that after the failure of Labour to win the seat became the ‘point at which the scale of Labour’s defeat across

When will the Labour leadership contenders realise it’s the 2020 election they’re fighting?

Tonight’s Newsnight Labour leadership debate is a sink or swim moment for Liz Kendall. So far, there has been a lot of talk about Kendall’s candidacy and her potential to be a reforming leader. But until now, there hasn’t been a lot of proof to back that up. Some have been whispering that she doesn’t perform well under sustained pressure; others have likened her supporters to the Taliban. Either way, tonight’s debate is her opportunity to show that she is credible — as well as hopefully answering the crucial question of what, if anything, she stands for. It’s a mistake to label Kendall as just the Blairite right-wing candidate. Again, she has