Andy Burnham's new cabinet - who's in, who's out.

[Twiglets1]

John Healey, who quit as Keir Starmer's defence secretary last month, has been pictured walking up Downing Street - is he about to be reinstated as Defence Secretary, I wonder.

Ed Miliband and Shabana Mahmood also photographed walking up Downing Street together - but we still don't which positions they will be given in Cabinet.

So absolutely dire polling for Labour with Reform still ahead. Level with the Conservatives. 😂

He would be daft to call an election - he has a big majority and would probably end up with a hung parliament.

At best - I completely agree.

Burnham doesn’t have a majority at all, what he has done is annihilated someone that did have a majority and a party manifesto to see through. No one in this country voted for Burnham or his manifesto. This is very shady. It’s unlikely Burnham will have the authority or creditability to carry on without an election.

The Labour Party is so heavily divided now, it will be an inside job - if the corruption doesn’t catch up with him before.

The way our system works it’s his majority now. If he strays too far from the manifesto people will of course be angry but if the Labour MPs support his plans we are stuck with them. But the manifesto has enough vagueness to it he can probably work his way through

Glad to see Bridget ‘Breakfast Club’ Phillipson removed from Education.

The harm she has done to Private Schools is immense.

Most notably the addition of VAT on SEN additional learning support is vile. A direct tax on disabled kids is shameful and indefensible. Let’s see what the Supreme Court has to say about it in December.

Exactly. It’s astonishing how many people think our political system is presidential.

I don't think you're right about what will happen in the next few days, judging by the feel around the north west, but we'll see.

I am in the North West but yes, we'll see. He knows it's the last chance the turn the fortunes of the party around and he has to undo the catastrophic damage caused over the last two years. He's facing a tough job.

I really don’t like Angela Rayner (and I don’t drink so there’s nothing about her and wine that I enjoy!), but I think bringing up wine on the beach is just a desperate attempt to criticise her over anything you can think of. Which is particularly unnecessary when there’s plenty of more substantial things to criticise her over.

I was specifically replying to someone saying how impressive she was a pod cast and prepping and researching ….and how she clearly hadn’t employed those skills whilst buying her hove flat and considering the optics (ie drinking on open water and vaping). Optics are so important for MPs and it’s astonishing that stevietos letting herself be caught in these moments.

It’s the thing that people complain about the most.

What’s wrong with Breakdast clubs?!!

All depends on who pays for them; and who benefits.

The podcast I heard I referred to was about her political career not her personal life. But yes I see your point too.

But it's a drop in the ocean when compared with the 13% rise on 1 July for most people and that's on top of all of the other rises in energy rises over the last two years.

The damage is awful, Starmer lead on the policy too.

I know. Blame those voting for Thatcher in the 80s and selling off our utilities to private companies. This is the main reason we pay more than most other developed countries for essential services.

It’s a drop in the ocean compared to what we pay for winter fuel allowance. Breakfast clubs: £315 million

Winter Fuel Payments: £1.8 billion

Whataboutism

Tony Blair had plenty of years to reverse that but did nothing. Luckily, I have solar panels and a heat pump so my bills are little more than the standing charge and I don't use any gas.

There was an advert for the governments summer savings on the radio earlier. ‘Dad spent the savings on ice creams’. Was that the point? Such an odd scheme

Blaming people who voted for Thatcher in the 1980s (not me) seems rather pointless. Millions of people - from the Left, Right and Centre - ran to buy shares in the privatised companies when they were offered. The same political cross section of council tenants chose to buy their homes under Right to Buy.

A more useful question is how successive governments have managed, regulated and invested in these industries since then... I think you'll find no colour has come out smelling of roses. And as for A was a bit less shit that B etc, a turd is still a turd.

Agree plus there’s a reason people swung to Thatcher. The strikes, chaos and winter of discontent.

“What’s wrong with Breakdast clubs?!!”

@BurntBroccoli - they did not provide enough funding for them. Our school can’t run them.
The breakfast and after school club makes money out of working parents which the school has no choice but to put towards general school costs, which includes the huge unfunded SEND bill most schools are lumped with. Which Bridget Phillipson added more to by insisting even more kids go mainstream who should not be there, or at least, should get funding.
The underfunding of SEND is going to feed directly into even more of a NEET crisis when those kids grow up!