A snack while you wait
Good Friday morning. This is Andrew McDonald.
THE QUICK-FIX ROADSHOW RETURNS: As we all wait for the 10-year plan — which may or may not arrive this year — Andy Burnham is back out promoting one of his “quick fixes.” This time, he’s announcing that he’ll force employers to publish salaries in job ads — another of those Labour moves that might wind up businesses but also play well with the public. And best of all for the government? It seemingly won’t cost the Treasury a penny.
But up in Manchester … a big part of that trickier, long-term policy will get some airtime as Met Police chief Mark Rowley delivers a punchy speech on police reforms. Those reforms are currently held up in the 10-year plan black box.
Quick bit first: The government is promising to introduce legislation “as soon as possible” that will require employers to list the salary offered on any job ads. Officials say they want to make openness about pay the minimum standard — and that this will help give workers confidence to challenge discrimination and prevent pay disputes.
**A message from Lloyds Banking Group: Financial empowerment is finding a bit of wiggle room. Lloyds Banking Group is enabling one million people to build towards a financial buffer by 2030, using practical digital tools, personalised prompts and savings features to help make putting something aside feel simpler. Lives Empowered. A Nation Empowered. **
Just one NEET trick: They also reckon it’s a small thing which will help Britain’s vast population of NEETs to apply for the right gigs, rather than everyone’s favorite guessing game of trying to work out what “competitive” means. To head off any assumptions that businesses won’t take kindly to more interfering, No. 10 is insisting that 93% of businesses which responded to a consultation on this backed the change. Yet with more than half of employers not publishing even a salary range in their ads, plenty of businesses clearly see a benefit to being less transparent on pay.
The bits to watch: The key to how businesses respond may be in the detail of how this will actually be implemented — as there’s lots we don’t know. No. 10 says further information will come “in due course” on exactly what needs to be included in the job ads, whether it will include all employers … and, most crucially, how the government will enforce it. Treasury Minister James Murray is on morning round duties for the government.
LinkedIn spats: It’s worth reading this FT piece from March 2023 on the impact of new pay transparency laws in some U.S. states … which includes employees venting about the fact they learned, after the laws came in, that their firms planned to hire new people for their team on higher salaries than them. Other complaints include that some ads had salary ranges with a difference of more than $200,000 between the high and low ends.
In the meantime: The PM is telling employers to say what they’ll pay on job ads now, rather than waiting for the law to change. One place to start could be with the 13 Labour MPs currently advertising for new staff (out of the 27 with openings on w4mp) who don’t list the salary they’ll pay — and instead leave potential applicants to work out where they might fall in the IPSA pay scales.
Selling all that today … is the PM himself — which shows you just how much No. 10 thinks it’s onto a winner with all this quick-fix retail policy. Burnham is off on a visit this morning to somewhere in the deep south of England, and will record a broadcast interview by lunchtime. Government officials were tight-lipped on the exact format of that. The PM is also promoting a new work experience program from Siemens Mobility and will be joining children for a “national science lesson.” That sounds like one of those occasions rife with potential for cringe content.
UP IN BURNHAM’S HAPPY PLACE: Met chief Mark Rowley’s speech is at 11 a.m., followed by a Q&A with the audience and then a huddle with hacks afterwards. It’s very political for a senior copper.
Get Mah-moving: Rowley — appearing alongside other senior officers including the head of the National Police Chiefs’ Council — will call on Shabana Mahmood to push ahead with proposals to scrap the vast majority of police forces. The Met chief wants the government to cut the number of forces in England and Wales from 43 to between eight and 10 much heftier regional bodies. That’s necessary, he’ll say, because of the sophisticated nature of modern crime with all the cyber threats and international wrong ‘uns.
Come a copper: But the reason for this intervention, and the timing of it, is the fear that the government might be cooling on plans for the kind of wholesale reform Rowley is after. Mahmood is currently considering unpublished reform recommendations from former Met Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe and is set to respond before Christmas. According to the Guardian’s Vikram Dodd, Hogan-Howe’s recommendations include slashing the number of police forces to numbers near Rowley’s ideal.
But but but: Burnham hasn’t spoken publicly about police reform since taking office, and the FT reported in August that the government had deliberately delayed a response to Hogan-Howe due to concerns from mayors that new police forces wouldn’t match up with their boundaries. And a police source tells the Guardian today that “there are some concerns Andy Burnham may want to align the new police structures with mayors, which could mean 20 or more forces. That is not a radical enough change.” A Home Office spokesperson said the department will deliver “the most radical reform of policing in 200 years.”
Rowley time, not Andy time: More detail is, as with everything, expected alongside the 10-year plan and the “rewiring of the state” white paper that will be published alongside it. But Rowley tells the Times any changes should be enacted “as quickly as we sensibly can do it” — which is a pretty transparent call to the government not to kick this any further into the long grass. Good luck with that one.
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MARCO! Senior figures in the U.K. government and Republican Party are closely watching for whether Marco Rubio quits his post to run for president, the Independent’s David Maddox and Andrew Feinberg reported last night. As one of those in the Trump administration considered to be a more sensible counterweight to the president, that prospect would be greeted with some alarm in the Foreign Office … and Bloomberg added to the chatter with a report that Rubio is considering his position and hasn’t made a decision either way.
Polo: The U.S. State Department dismissed the rumors, and then Rubio did the same. He told the New York Times overnight that working for Trump until the end of his second term has “always been my plan.”
Now listen … to today’s Westminster Insider, where Patrick Baker speaks to top former officials for their take on how Britain should handle a wounded Trump.
YOU’D IMAGINE THE PM MIGHT BE ASKED ABOUT … Russell Brand being found guilty of rape and three sexual assaults — which splashes most of the papers. The Mail is among those pointing out that people in Labour, including the PM, praised Brand in the past for his anti-establishment views … though all of that was at least a decade before this case began. The Telegraph also runs an op-ed by former BBC star Liz Kershaw accusing the Beeb of enabling Brand’s behavior.
More crime news: Henry Nowak’s killer has had his life sentence increased from a minimum of 21 to 25 years by the Court of Appeal. Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch has done an interview on the case with ITV, which will air this morning.
DRILL, BURNHAM, DRILL?: Labour MPs Henry Tufnell and Steve Yemm have founded a cross-party pressure group called Industry First to support new oil and gas drilling (despite Labour’s manifesto commitment). Tufnell described Andy Burnham’s ban on more drilling for new oil in the North Sea as an “act of self-harm” and hypocritical, the Telegraph reports.
On which note: Burnham heads to the COP31 climate summit in Turkey next week, my colleague Charlie Cooper messages in, where he’ll try to earn some climate brownie points even after approving the Jackdaw gas field and with a decision on the Rosebank oil development looming. “You get the feeling there’s political space being made for this shittier decision,” one Labour MP predicted. Charlie’s story is here.
NO STINGS HERE: A “senior aide to the king” appears to have done a full round of off-record chats with Britain’s royal correspondents to tie off the week at CHOGM and insist Charles III wasn’t blindsided by Andy Burnham’s pre-trip op-ed. The aide is quoted in the Times as saying the palace was informed beforehand about Burnham opening the door to an apology on slavery. “I talked to the prime minister myself. We were told the terms in which he was proposing to write his op-ed and he’s perfectly entitled to do that,” the aide said. They added there is “genuinely a good relationship” between the king and PM.
Buzzing around: The aide is also quoted in the BBC (and many others including ITV, the Telegraph, the Mail) as saying the king has been used as “a great secret weapon” by the government. “I think what we’re seeing is a very clear pattern emerging of the government asking the king to head into quite politically charged situations, quite challenging situations … [the king] is able to reach the parts that dare I say politicians probably couldn’t quite have reached.” They added that Buckingham Palace is “fully open” to Commonwealth realms removing the king as head of state if that’s what they decide to do.
PALANTIR PREVAILS: Ministers have decided not to strip Palantir of its NHS contract because doing so could hamper the government’s attempts to bring down waiting lists, according to the FT and the Times. Health Secretary Yvette Cooper has been under pressure from left-wing Labour MPs to trigger a break clause in Palantir’s contract, but sources familiar with the matter tell both outlets it would be too disruptive.
THE MAKERFIELD TEST: The Sun’s Tom Scotson has been conducting his own focus group in a Makerfield pub — where he found lots of anger over the government considering the axing of Freeview telly in a decade or two. “I think that could bring the government down,” Keith, one of the PM’s constituents, told Scotson upon hearing of the plan.
WHAT THE LIB DEMS ARE UP TO: Leader Ed Davey is off on a visit to a South West Hertfordshire farm this morning with his party’s candidate for the area, Matt Sanders. Expect a pool clip at some point.
REPORTS OUT TODAY: Former Ambassador to Saudi Arabia John Jenkins warns in a Policy Exchange paper that the U.K. is developing a “culture of capitulation” over the reparations row.
NICE LITTLE EARNER: MSPs who chair committees at Holyrood are due to get a £15,500 salary boost to cover their extra responsibilities after the rewards were unanimously approved. STV has a write-up.
INQUIRY BEGINS: The Scottish government has announced that a public inquiry into grooming gangs in Scotland will start next week, led by Alexis Jay. Survivors of grooming gang abuse have accused ministers of taking too long to deliver on promises to investigate the issue, the BBC reports.
MEANWHILE, IN THE MARKETS: Global stocks were tumbling in the wake of the midterms, seemingly due to fears that the Democrat blue wave would slow the AI boom. More in the FT’s live blog here.
CATASTROPHE! The Eiffel Tower was forced to close yesterday as hundreds of thousands joined mostly peaceful demonstrations across France. It’s expected to reopen over the weekend. The Telegraph has a write-up.
DEATH ROW OVERHAUL: Outgoing California Governor Gavin Newsom is commuting all of the state’s death sentences to life in prison without parole. His decision affects 548 people on death row in state prisons. More from my POLITICO colleagues.
**A message from Lloyds Banking Group: Financial empowerment is finding a bit of wiggle room. It means having the confidence, capability and control to make informed decisions about money. Only half of UK adults feel financially empowered, yet 57% say better digital tools, information or guidance could change that. Lloyds Banking Group is enabling one million people to build towards a financial buffer by 2030. Savings pots, automatic savings and personalised prompts can help make putting something aside feel simpler when circumstances allow. The potential benefit could be national as well as personal. Modelling commissioned by Lloyds Banking Group suggests that digitally enabled financial empowerment could unlock around £3,500 in value for every UK household over the next decade. There is no one-size-fits-all financial buffer. It is about making the next step simpler to create a little more breathing space when it matters. Lives Empowered. A Nation Empowered. **
Paymaster General James Murray broadcast round: Sky Mornings (7.15 a.m.) … Times Radio (7.30 a.m.) … LBC (7.50 a.m.) … Good Morning Britain (8.35 a.m.) … GB News (9.05 a.m.).
Also on Nick Ferrari at Breakfast: Lead detective in the case against Russell Brand Andy Furphy (8.07 a.m.).
Also on LBC News: Fawcett Society Chief Executive Penny East (8.45 a.m.).
POLITICO UK: Andy Burnham’s cost-of-living COP.
Daily Express: ‘Predatory’ Brand faces jail for sex crimes.
Daily Mail: Downfall of the swaggering sex predator fawned over by the Left.
Daily Star: Rapist Brand: more victims.
Financial Times: Tech stocks plunge as investors worry blue wave will sink AI spending boom.
The Daily Telegraph: BBC ‘enabled’ rapist Brand.
The Guardian: Brand faces ‘significant’ prison term for rape and sexual assault.
The Independent: ‘Predatory’ Brand faces jail for rape and sexual assaults.
The i Paper: Godfather of AI warns humanity: it’s all hurtling out of control.
The Times: Brand found guilty of rape.
The Economist: Donald Trump’s humiliation offers America an opportunity.
The New Statesman: Nigel Farage’s bastards.
WESTMINSTER WEATHER: Overcast. High of 11C, low of 9C.
NEW GIGS: Finlay Henderson has joined former Cabinet minister Steve Reed’s office as a senior parliamentary assistant, moving over from Cavendish.
JOB ADS: The royal household is looking for an executive assistant to the deputy private secretary to the king.
NOW READ: London Centric’s Polly Smythe has written about how a harassment loophole is allowing content creators to rack up views filming women on the streets of the capital, leaving them feeling exposed.
FRIDAY’S POD PICK: Keir Starmer’s former policy chief Claire Ainsley joins Politics Unleashed with David Davis and Guto Harri to discuss Andy Burnham’s first 100 days and what Starmer was really like behind closed doors.
WRITING PLAYBOOK PM: Emilio Casalicchio.
WRITING PLAYBOOK MONDAY MORNING: Andrew McDonald. Back again, dear oh dear.
BIRTHDAYS: Shadow Policy Renewal and Development Minister Neil O’Brien … Bolton West MP Phil Brickell … former Irish Ambassador to the U.K. Adrian O’Neill … newspaper executive David Montgomery … PA Chief Political Photographer Stefan Rousseau … and POLITICO trade reporter Caroline Hug.
Celebrating over the weekend: Eastleigh MP Liz Jarvis … Warwick and Leamington MP Matt Western … Redditch MP Chris Bloore … former Wales Office SpAd Rhys Clyne … former Kettering MP Philip Hollobone … former North Wiltshire MP James Gray … former Stoke-on-Trent Central MP Jo Gideon … BBC Deputy Political Editor Vicki Young … crossbench peer and former Trade Minister Stephen Green … South Shields MP Emma Lewell … Labour peer Nick Forbes … former Yeovil MP Marcus Fysh … former Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Vincent Nichols … former High Court Judge Laura Cox … former Elle UK editor-in-chief Farrah Storr.
PLAYBOOK COULDN’T HAPPEN WITHOUT: My editors Matt Honeycombe-Foster, Alex Spence and James Panichi, reporter Megan McElroy and producers Dean Southwell and Hugh Kapernaros.
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