Andy Burnham is a man in a hurry: he has just three weeks to come up with a fully formed plan for government. Events are moving so quickly that his new chief of staff, James Purnell, was forced to send a hasty message to colleagues at his lobbying firm to tell them of his fresh start without a proper handover.
In Westminster, Purnell’s appointment felt like the clock had rewound 20 years. Burnham and Purnell were two of the rising stars of New Labour, when factionalism between then-prime minister Tony Blair and his chancellor Gordon Brown permeated political alliances, friendships and policy decisions. Even now, the labels “Blairite” to describe the centre-right who favour market-driven reforms and “Brownite” – emphasising the role of central government and welfare state – remain Labour shorthand.
“It may be old money, but we still use it, for lack of anything better,” a Labour source said. “There are still Brownites around, but they tend to be older sages and influence the soft left,” another source added.
Burnham has surrounded himself with a mixture of soft-left Labour MPs, including Lucy Powell, Lisa Nandy and Louise Haigh, alongside those further to the left such as secretary of the Trade Union Group of Labour MPs, Anneliese Midgley. So, it came as a surprise to some when Purnell – who worked for Blair in No 10 and later in his Cabinet – was parachuted in as chief of staff.
