Andy Burnham appoints James Purnell as chief of staff
Andy Burnham appointed former Blair minister James Purnell as his chief of staff to rebuild his Westminster team. Purnell is a veteran Labour figure, and his recruitment is being treated as one of Burnham's most significant moves since returning to Westminster. The hire signals Burnham is stacking his central team with experienced national-level operators to coordinate policy and political strategy as he positions for government.
Meet James Purnell. Andy Burnham's chief of staff. In earlier incarnation, he supported the Iraq invasion; was chairman of Labour Friends of Israel; said that Winter Fuel Allowance and free bus passes should not be sacred; supported PFI, lie-detector tests for benefit claimants. What next?
Ulf Poshbart, former publisher of Politico42Sounds like a thousand reasons to not vote for Labour
รℓσαɳε ℓყรɓεƭɦ 🏳️🌈40yeah the labour party is beyond redemption at this point.
Scottish Yorkshire Man27Looks like the Government Shop is just getting a new shopkeeper.
Alan 23If Burnham is the answer, it must have been a very strange question.
Paul Steel 🇪🇺🇩🇪🇨🇵🇮🇪🇸🇯🇸🇪🏴🇦🇹🇨🇭🇨🇦 🇬🇱🍉18Oh dear! This is not starting well! My own personal litmus tests are what Andy does to stop the genocide in Gaza and what he does to get us back into the EU pronto subito. I must admit I am not expecting much real progress on either! Lots of noise but no action!
Patrick Barlow15What next? You join @greenparty.org.uk and work with @nataliegreenpeer.bsky.social and @greenjennyjones.bsky.social ?
davyboy72.bsky.social15Yep the Blairites are back, recommencing their Tory-lite policies. No wonder the right-wing media owners have been platforming Burnham.
Snigdha14James Purnell: more Blue Labour. More excuses for racism. More anti-immigration rhetoric. www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/call-ma...
Jim Caris14We're getting the same Blue Labour reactionary crap that's led us to this point. They're not even pretending it's going to be meaningfully different. bsky.app/profile/did:...
lizziec.bsky.social13The what next is the death of Labour if we get another Blue Labour government. They are on borrowed time. Fail again, people will switch en masse to the Greens.
FredSmallman13Same strings different puppet .
Helen12Quite apart from his moral failings, it's disturbing that a minister at that level believes in lie detector tests.
stevecw.bsky.social12Hmmm! Sounds like the UK’s Stephen Miller.
Wombat11Cue The Who and Won't Get Fooled Again.
Inequality News7Can't actually think of a worse appointment, except maybe Mandelson again... 🤮
Shortbreadfairy©️7I think we can safely say that Labour have sold oot the Electorates hope for change. Reform will be the next Government because of Labour's inability to read the fecking room
Wouldn’t it be great if we ran out of hate7Labour Friends of Israel should be banned while #IsraelKillsKids and commits #genocide #ukpol
R1ch1e56FGS, will it ever change🤷♀️
GreenerFutures6More evidence, were it needed, that Burnham is a continuity candidate. Labour is a lost cause if it continues to recycle like this.
Richard at UKverified4Now James Purnell believes that Andy Burnham has a credible plan to ensure that a... Reform UK victory is less likely? news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_poli...
i'm JayEm4Oh great, here we go again 🙄
Crazy Cat Lady Abroad3I've got my fair share of criticisms of Starmer, but I have yet to hear anything which would make me think Burnham is an improvement in any way.
Letting the despicable Wes Streeting near any cabinet post will be yet another ludicrous decision, but will happen.
Pete Bangert3He is perfectly on point for the new wave of Blairite Blue Labour about to take over the government. Burnham will follow orders.
Iacovos3Three things made it impossible for anyone with a decent or progressive bone to support Starmer's Labour: - genocide complicity - stupid EU red lines - bashing migrants/vulnerable groups If Burnham hasn't learnt from that (and he's shown little sign), he, Labour and very likely the UK are toast
Fran W3So more of the same from the genocide supporting UK government.
Lyn Henderson3And this is supposed to win back our votes?
ShoeTown Owl2@greenparty.org.uk get my vote. At least they’re not full of evil neoliberal shitbags.
tracygrace.bsky.social2I’m finding this all a bit much to stomach, the selection process for a new PM has not even started and Andy Burnham has appointed a chief of staff! If true, the sheer arrogance of the man. If he is appointed hope there’s enough room around the cabinet table for him and his ego!
Dave Fernig2Failure awaits. The Apparat chooses the tried and trusted. We are in an era of Brezhnevism, this is the best parallel I can think of. No new ideas allowed and we stick to the 1978 ideology.
bsbtim2die.bsky.social2He might be a little more popular than Starmer, but Labour are just swapping one zionist genocide supporter for another. Hang your head in shame Labour!
Puffi Station One2And so it rolls on. New captain, but business as usual.
Margaret Rose2These creeps just keep getting these jobs. No wonder the country is in peril.
Wouldn’t it be great if we ran out of hate2If Burnham supports Israel’s genocide he should be ousted asap.
Nelly Probin2When this news broke last night, my hubs first reaction was to say what an absolute shite Purnell was.
pmf2Got to say, Burnham is not really tempting the quarter of Labour’s voter base that defected to the Greens back yet
Burnham’s new chief of staff was chief executive of lobbying firm Flint It’s like the British political elite is addicted to conflicts of interest www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Keith24It's staggering to think that in the entire Labour movement there isn't a single person Burnham could pick who isn't a corporate lobbyist for some of the worst planet destroying companies in the world, it isn't going to go down well with anyone who thought they knew what Andy stood for
Daniel9This will surely not explode in a scandal that forces a variety of resignations
Shortbreadfairy©️9I feel this why PMs are falling. They've been bought by the lobbyists. Too much power given to an undemocratic bloc
tubaguycolin.bsky.social8The King of the North will be swallowed up by the Westminster Bubble?
David Pick5Except, to them, there *isn't* any conflict of interest...
Valentenya the climate cat 🍉 🐈⬛5The saddest thing about this is witnessing all the Labour rusted ons justifying it out of their desperate need to imagine their corporate and Zionist captured party can change its stripes.
Dr Stew Hotston (he/him)5Blue Labour and PPE - more of the same. Burnham's honeymoon is going to be shorter than a gnat's chuff
Eden™️5No one slithers into the top job like they do in the UK.
Judi Sutherland4Well he should be able to spot when the lobbyists are lobbying, then.
brandybl.bsky.social3"change" candidate hires a former blair minister turned lobbyist exec as his first major pick, groundbreaking stuff
Claire S (UK not USA)3Is it only me who's sickened by Burnham behaving as if he's already the PM? I just bloody give up.
Dennis Patton3This James Purnell. Burnham out by Christmas? www.theguardian.com/politics/200...
Idiokratie2Well Mandelssohn and Andrew Windsor weren't available, apparently. Jimmy Savile is deceased and Anthony Blinken sadly is not a subject of his Majesty the King.
#FBPE. DMs will be ignored.2Andy Burnham can't say he wasn't told what would happen once the big target was on his back. The execrable tories got a free ride for 14 years until the fuck ups were just too much for even their off and online media overlords to stomach. Labour will never get that.
Green Eyed Hecate (she/her)2"James Purnell, a former Labour Cabinet Minister, who previously chaired Labour Friends of Israel between 2002 and 2004...."
🚨BREAKING | Andy Burnham has appointed ultra-Blairite James Purnell as Chief of Staff. Purnell has described disabled people as "people who scrounge from the system" and says they are falsely claiming benefits despite being supposedly fit for work. (Spotted by @johnpringdns) x.com/LeftieStats/...
Stats for Lefties 🍉🏳️⚧️18Source: Purnell also favours lie detector tests for benefit claimants www.disabilitynewsservice.com/labour-confe...
Don't expect meaningful change with Burnham, New Labour will still be Zionist genocide lovers. Vote Green.
psouthern1.bsky.social3This is only shocking to people who haven't got a clue about Burnham. Vote green.
Jeff2#Allinthesameclub and their agenda remains the same whoever they choose to front it.
Last seen collaborating with the press on a series of escalating stories of anonymous insider alarm about Gordon Brown’s financial policies before a sudden morning splash of choreographed interviews, culminating in a shock Channel 4 documentary blaming him for the 08 crisis.
flyingrodent28If this reminds of any especially dubious scandals in which weeks of leaked snippets of emails, terrified anonymous screeching and Shock Revelations culminated in a blaze of publicity for an extremely bullshitty BBC documentary, it should. Because it was exactly the same shit.
forlorn horse in brazilian frost5But like it's good that capital can literally just send a guy to run the Government, soon we can all give out the tiring pretence and they can just second someone to be PM
forlorn horse in brazilian frost5There's no such thing as a "potential" conflict of interests. The so-called conflict is precisely the potential for conflict
SMD4what an interesting and completely unrelated partnership www.mishcon.com/news/tv/the-...
Lol, Burnham is going to end up being more right wing than Starmer.
Tractor Boy🚜 #FBPE 🇪🇺 🇵🇸🇺🇦4Says it all …we now know what to expect and any change will add further misery to the already beleaguered poverty stricken, the sick, disabled and trans people.
Eloi Taste Tester3Given his lack of even bothering to pretend otherwise he really is confident hes just going to be gifted the big boy seat isn't he?
Moose Malloy3He's going to renationalise the water companies!* *create additional private bodies to pretend to oversee the already existing companies
So basically James Purnell is a white nationalist because when you ignore Labour’s Black and Asian voters currently subject to race riots and pander to bigots that’s what you are
marykmac.bsky.social3"which focusses on winning back Labour's working-class support" does it though
Jill Hayward2He's one of those New Labour zombies I'd hoped had popped off to the lucrative private sector merry go round for good. Looks like Burnham's going back to his pre-mayoralty politics. I thought he'd learned something being out of Westminster - clearly not.
James Purnell would, in many ways, be an excellent choice as chief of staff. Known Burnham a long time, though not from the same political faction. Good at running things. Known to be collegiate. BUT: he is currently the CEO of Flint Global and that's a vetting *nightmare* in the making.
James Ball17Tbe quagmire over Peter Mandelson's botched vetting helped to bring down Keir Starmer. And the vetting issue wasn't Epstein – it was Global Counsel's client list. Flint Global also has an international client list, including controversial Chinese firms. That could be an *interesting* early battle.
Harry Stokes6The guy who wanted lie detector tests for benefit claimants? That guy? Are you quite alright? He shouldn’t be anywhere near power, chilling and evil bloke
anitabellows.bsky.social4Do you know who is James Purnell and his input into welfare reform? I guess not
The Elusive Lopez4His history at the DWP was disgraceful. Awful man. God help the poor with him at the helm
Jimmyrayreid3Just expedite the vetting procedure. What could go wrong?
Don't think Gordon thought he was collegiay
Alan Pennie 2When will they will they ever learn?
Mejoff2Being a CEO in the last 5 years should be immediate disqualification for any government position.
