Mayors, assemble! Andy Burnham's got some words for Rishi, while Claire Coutinho starts assembly of her big new drill in the North Sea - and where's Ed Davey after Lib Dem Conference? Hiding, we think...
Flying high: Andy Burnham
The Manchester Mayor is back in the limelight with a scathing criticism of the Prime Minister’s suggestion to scrap the HS2 project.
Joining a not-so-merry band of Labour metro mayors from across the country, Burnham was pictured alongside London’s Sadiq Khan, West Yorkshire’s Tracy Brabin, South Yorkshire’s Oliver Coppard and Liverpool’s Steve Rotheram in what can only be described as the next Fantastic Five (listen up, Marvel!) to lambast the Government for its inaction and indecision over the project.
Burnham was rewarded with a splash across the front pages for his comments, both in criticism of Sunak and in support of the north that will suffer the consequences of the decision. It’s a blow to Sunak, whose attempt to be viewed as the man-of-the-people-everywhere is undercut by Burnham’s comment that the move will be a disaster for the north of England and will leave the region with “Victorian infrastructure”.
What’s Sunak’s loss is Burnham’s gain, as he once again comes across as a politician with integrity, honesty, and whose priority is the people he serves.
Middle of the road: Claire Coutinho
Claire Coutinho has asserted herself as the new Energy Security Secretary with more impact than a drill in an oil field. Or rather, she’s done so with a drill in an oil field.
The approval of the Rosebank oil and gas field in the North Sea has been met with rage among green campaigners who, together with over 50 cross-party parliamentarians, have long warned of the shockwaves such a decision would send across the world.
But the voice of the green lobby is not always reflective of the UK electorate at large. The Rosebank announcement will chime with oil and gas communities who have long felt left out of vague promises of a ‘green job transition’ – just as the GMB union’s reaction to the Government’s decision over the Tata Group steel plant showed.
If Sunak’s announcements last week effectively jumpstarted a general election campaign, then the Government’s confirmation of Rosebank reflects a call-to-arms to industrial heartland voters to ‘go blue’ at next year’s ballot box. It also pins Starmer in a corner with the Scottish voters Labour needs to win back but who may be supportive of more domestic oil jobs. All eyes on Labour for how they respond.
Slowly sinking: Ed Davey
The Leader of the Liberal Democrats will have left the Party’s annual conference earlier this week with hunched shoulders, as headline policy announcements fell flat in the wake of a series of punches to Davey’s leadership.
Davey and the wider Lib Dem leadership were dealt a mutinous blow from party members, who voted against the proposal to drop their national housebuilding target of 380,000 new homes a year. And if that wasn’t enough, attempts by both Davey and deputy Daisy Cooper to present the party’s pragmatic election strategy were mired by questions on Brexit.
Leaving interviews “squirming” and leaving voters “confused” is hardly the impression to set for a party aiming to boost its parliamentary seats from 15 to 30 at the next election. With polling indicating that voters have no idea what the Lib Dems stand for, Davey needs to make some sort of noise just to be noticed by the British public. It’ll take more than just strong anti-Tory rhetoric for Davey to make the gains he dreams of...