Anneliese Midgley

Louise Haigh was in tears.

Anneliese Midgley, some of the people that have been very close to Burnham, uh, those two politicians.

I mean, it was really, really, uh, genuinely emotional.

And because of that emotion, when he did start to speak again, I mean, the atmosphere was just incredible, uh, in the room, and, uh, people were just willing him on.

And they thought...

And I think that's partly, you know, understandably, through very smart people like Lou Haigh and Anneliese Midgley and, and others.

You know, his rise to power in the last nine months has not been accidental.

But there's this perception, understandably, for people who don't listen to this podcast all the time, can you imagine, that it's just, he, the, the music stopped, and he was holding the parcel.

I think it will be interesting to see how people who are kind of a bit in the background of Burnham-ism but are absolutely central to it go through the conference and, and how they come out the other side.

So I would be watching for any performances by Louise Haigh or Anneliese Midgley, both of whom are absolutely fundamental to the Burnham project but don't really have very public-facing roles.

So this will be a time when they will be up there speaking on some platforms, I believe, but also just hobnobbing with members, going to the receptions, having chats, talking to people, being seen.

Both of those incredibly interesting, strong, capable, one Northwest, I think one Yorkshire, but certainly not from London.

That, that may be the way that you go about it initially.

If Peter Kyle or Steve Reed, uh, do, uh, end up making interventions that are judged to be unhelpful, they can expect a call from Anneliese Midgley, the Chief Whip.

That's exactly what's happened to, uh, Steve Reed after he wrote a little article in The Times, I was, uh, told.

So they are, uh, this lot are trying to police the last lot a little bit.

Angela Rayner's in the hall.

Wes Streeting and Anneliese Midgley, the, uh, chief whip, uh, defense secretary and chief whip expect to turn up, and everybody expects Andy Burnham, uh, to be revealed as the senior La- Labor figure, uh, attending, uh, tomorrow, speaking and taking questions.

Sharon Graham cooling on her previous calls to disaffiliate, uh, the unions from, uh, Labor in an interview she gave in the Sunday Mirror.

So it does seem that part of the post-Keir effect is that the, the unions are giving the new leadership of Andy Burnham a, a new chance, and maybe vice versa, as, as you point out with that stellar turnout there, uh, from the government.