Andy Burnham officially welcomed the hard Left into his Government today as Corbynites were appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretaries for the first time. The Spectator‘s Noa Hoffman has the story.
Ahead of another busy week of announcements, Andy Burnham today officially welcomed the hard Left into his government’s parliamentary team. A new cohort of ministerial bag carriers – or PPSs – has been unveiled after much anticipation in the parliamentary Labour party (PLP). These posts were one of the last opportunities for Labour MPs to secure a plum job.
While the Government already spans the so-called soft Left, Blue Labour and even a few surviving Blairites, the PPS door has now been opened to loud and proud Corbynites. It marks the first time ever they have been allowed to serve in a British government.
Three members of the Corbyn-supporting Socialist Campaign Group caucus will serve as Government PPSs: Olivia Blake and Mary Kelly Foy at the Housing Ministry, and Steve Witherden at the Energy Department.
Witherden enjoyed a spell in the headlines after a retired policeman accused him of stealing his proposal to send British ventilators to Ukraine – only for the machines to be offered to Cuba instead. Steve Eccleshall had asked the hard-Left MP to help secure the release of 40 unused ventilators from a Welsh hospital. But a letter Witherden sent to the NHS trust three days later requested the machines be donated to Cuba. A post on the newly appointed PPS’s Instagram account shows him visiting the Venezuelan embassy in January to sign a book of condolences “for the well over 80 people killed in the US attack on Carcaras”. …
One Labour MP told the Spectator: “Putting Socialist Campaign Group members into PPS roles is madness. These are the very same people who at every turn sought to defend Jeremy Corbyn and prevent Labour speaking to the electorate rather than just a clique of hard Left activists.” Another said: “There’s increasing fury at the purge. Not aimed at Andy Burnham yet but at those he’s entrusted to build the team: Louise Haigh and Annaliese Midgeley.” A third Labour MP told the Spectator: “Andy clearly values MPs who speak their mind, so I plan to do so more often.”
Worth reading in full.
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I doubt any of us here really expect Football Shirt Man to really do any better than Two Tier other than being less of a mind numbing robotic drone when he talks.