Louise Haigh

These arguments about Israel have been made inside Labour itself.

Here's First Secretary of State Louise Haigh in the Commons on the 4th of June just last year when she was back on the back benches.

It is impossible to conclude that this is anything less than a genocide.

So on that basis, will he reflect the will of this house to the Foreign Secretary and to the cabinet to impose immediately sanctions on Netanyahu and his genocidal regime?

Um, the most tri- striking thing is the line, the, is the line that the OPMC, it's never gonna trip off the tongue, is it? Um, is going to be led by Cabinet Secretary Dame Antonia Romeo.

So what's interesting about that is I think some others might think that the OPMC will be led by First Secretary of State Louise Haigh.

And in the context of that kind of ongoing question about who exactly are the most powerful people in Burnham's government, which I remain fascinated by, I'm just keeping an eye on that.

I did actually, 'cause I am that much of a nerd, go into the Wikipedia edits on the page to see if I could work out-

That is her, you know, you expect hiring for a permanent secretary to run, uh, through her.

But the way I read it, and it's [laughs] as you say, there's only so many Wikipedia, uh, um, edits that you could, can go into, but it would be a principal advisor to the First Secretary of States providing support, counsel, and challenge, ooh, challenge, interesting, in setting overall strategy and policy.

So if you're, like, working to, uh, Louise Haigh, but the appointment, and, uh, feel free anybody who understands the, the, the deepest weeds, um, of the artist formerly known as the Cabinet Office to get in touch if I'm wrong, but I, I think the appointment runs through Antonia Romeo, and I, I think that's unambiguous.

So it's, is the per- is the app- the person chosen by her, but the role, uh, reports into, uh, Louise Haigh in terms of, you know, driving day-to-day activity.

But there is a strong message here of these two men are personally, uh, close, which I think is quite interesting.

And, and, and I think this leans into the idea that, yes, the traditional motor of the budget is operating as normal rather than there being a third person in this budget process in the form of Louise Haigh.

Her and Healey do see each other once a week, I'm told.

But, um, I am also told that budgets are usually sorted out between number 10 and number 11, and that is continuing as possible.

'Cause I get a lot of questions, you know, from businesses, should we see Cabinet Office and Louise Haigh as well as part of the budget process? 'Cause they're not quite sure who's holding the pen.

And so certainly from some parts of government, I'm getting a, "Mm, not so sure about that." Let's, let's [laughs] let's, let's see if, uh, there's a corrective to this, uh, given to me later today.

Uh, but that's, it's a, it's a, it's a funny old, it's a funny old structure at the moment, and people are still getting their heads around it.

So I think that's potentially, well, it's definitely a, a plus.

Laura's friend Louise Haigh is back in, in, uh-

She is.

I was thinking about that

in government as well.

Yeah.

Laura's friend.

Yeah.

... of the things that Labor have done, especially on inheritance tax and things, fueled poverty for their pens- all that stuff I didn't agree, and that's why, well, but what we've did is, to be fair, we didn't wait 18 years to change the guy at the helm, so, uh, so fair play to, to, to Labor for doing that.

And let's see how Andy Burnham and, and, you know, Louise Haigh and the team do going forward.

But, but Jeremy is just Jeremy being Jerem- Jeremy, you know? And the one thing about, if you listen to everything that Jeremy's ever have to got to say, everything is either for his benefit, right-

[laughs]

Um, but it was-

He, of course, was axed by Louise Haigh.

Well, you can say that.

I could not possibly comment.

I think there's some speculation it will not be a permanent secretary, uh, role this time round.

It will go back to being a sort of director role, uh, important, but not, uh, at that civil service level.

I guess what do I take from it? I'll take from it that Number 10 wants to have, and Louise Haigh in the Cabinet Office want a, a more direct grip, uh, on the government communications machine as opposed to having a sort of parallel one that, um, you know, which, which was growing outside, uh, their direct influence.

Fewer press conferences, fewer access to information via the parliamentary questions system, greater grip from Number 10.

Um, I was talking to somebody in the corporate world, and they echoed something I picked up at Labour Conference.

They flagged a question that we're grappling with, which is who is really in charge of economic policy in Andy Burnham's government? And you've got a prime minister that has strong views and a historic dislike of the Treasury, and they feel that that is sort of channeled through this new ultra-powerful First Secretary of State, which is Louise, uh, Haigh.

And they're sensing a political center of gravity that's a bit more there than, for instance, with junior Treasury ministers who, who perhaps feel a bit out of the loop.

And that echoes something that I was feeling after conversations in Liverpool, because there is clearly just a number of people at the top of government trying to look over the Treasury wall into what John Healey and his team are, are up to.

That's why you didn't hear economic policy in John Healey's speech last week.

Um, but the bottom line remains you cannot remote control budgets from Number Ten.

So this is where Ben Nunn's intervention, I think, comes in, which is he's trying to educate Number Ten about what to expect, but it raises all sorts of questions, which is, are Number Ten and the wider Louise Haigh, First Secretary of State machine, properly plugged into the process? Are they getting all the OBR forecasts that you get when you're in the, the Treasury? Does her team feel fully, uh, empowered? But really, I think we've just got the tentative start of a story as old of time.

It's the tussle for economic control between Number Ten and Number Eleven.

[laughs]

... we've got Louise Haigh on the frontbench, deputy prime minister, that's been done for fraud.

[laughs]

You know, it is a joke.