Josh Simons

And, yeah, so...

Andy Burnham, they've created a by-election in Makerfield where Josh Simons stood down to create a vacancy so Andy Burnham could stand.

And he's won that.

Now he's in the House of Commons.

Well, look, I think it was an extraordinary set of circumstances, a bold move.

uh to get a sitting mp to stand down you know josh simons who had his own ministerial career he'd hit a few problems he'd had to resign in a particular issue relating to labor together um but he you know some would say nobody's to decide for the lieutenant to decide for the captain to come forward and anti-burnham won it well this was the thing he won it so well that he made it clear to the Labour Party that, you know, a contested election for leader was pretty pointless because he could deliver a seat like that, that had voted leave overwhelmingly, very firmly into the Labour camp against a strong reform challenge.

So, you know, it's one of those by-elections that is politically monumental.

You know, you do get them.

In its new guise, it will continue in its objective to rid Labour of any semblance of left, pro-working class politics, and having gutted it of any distinctive purpose, create the conditions for its demise.

It is notable that it was Josh Simons, former Director of Labour Together, who stood down to allow Burnham to stand in Makerfield, paving the way for him to re-enter Parliament.

Burnham appointed James Purnell as his Chief of Staff.

Purnell is a former New Labour Minister and former Chair of Labour Friends of Israel.

That's how I feel with this government, and I feel like that is quite a norm- qu- quite a common feeling amongst a lot of British people, where Andy Burnham was parachuted in to be prime minister.

He was only able to stand in Makerfield because Josh Simons, uh, the former minister-

Yeah

... who, um, you know, was disgraced over the fact that he'd-

So, you know, maybe he would say actually the alternative turned out to be worse, but in a constituency that has basically lost all of its industry.

I mean, it had a glass factory that closed just before Josh Simons resigned as the MP.

you sort of wonder what's the argument you're making beyond the sort of, you know, pull the lever, GDP goes up by 2%, everybody's happy and it's going on a foreign holiday a year, I don't know.

I

The government didn't have long enough until the next election to wait for growth to materialise, they believed.

so i should try to improve people's living standards now by intervening in the market to lower the cost of living on fourteenth of may twenty twenty six the labour m p for makefield josh simons announced he would be standing down and cleared the way for burnham to run in a by-election On the same day, the JRF and the NEF published coordinated research proposing a new system of rent controls.

The Institute for Public Policy Research, IPPR, the think tank where Roberts formerly worked, had published similar research a few days earlier.

We were anticipating political movement, Sterling told me, and we wanted to make sure we were landing the right policies.

The first, which is closer to Fambula and Miliband, draws on the more radical ideas of thinkers such as Lawrence and includes organisations such as Commonwealth and the NEF.

Its central argument is that the privatisation of life's essentials, including energy and social care, has created an affordability crisis that is driving up inflation, and that many of these assets should therefore be publicly owned.

The second camp is closer to Burnham's powerful ally, the first Secretary of State, Louise Haig, her advisor, Nick Williams, and Josh Simons, the former Makerfield MP.

It includes think tanks such as the newly founded Centre for British Progress and the Good Growth Foundation.