Andy Burnham appoints 3 new ministerial aides from Socialist Campaign Group
In a sign that Andy Burnham is seeking to build as broad a church as possible in his government and […]
In a sign that Andy Burnham is seeking to build as broad a church as possible in his government and put an end to factionalism, the Prime Minister has appointed three new ministerial aides from Labour’s most leftwing faction, the first time members of the Socialist Campaign Group have been part of the government.
The Guardian reports that ‘three of Burnham’s new parliamentary private secretaries will now hail from the socialist grouping – the Sheffield Hallam MP Olivia Blake will be the PPS for local government, City of Durham’s Mary Kelly Foy at housing and Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr’s Steve Witherden at energy.”
PPSs are the most junior role that can be awarded and is often a training ground for promising new MPs who act as a liaison between the government and backbenchers.
The paper also reports that Burnham’s new chief whip, Anneliese Midgley, has pledged to raise the profile of PPSs and to give them the ability to take on parliamentary roles and also to have input on policy direction.
That Burnham now has a broad mix of soft left, Blue Labour and even a few surviving Blairites, shows that he was serious about drawing on the talents of all Labour MPs and officials from across different wings of the party.
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