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Illustration by Andre Carrilho The new Prime Minister prepared for his first appearance in the Commons on 1 September by going for a run. The hot damp breath of summer lingered among the trees of St James’ Park, whispering memories of the Summer of Andy. The triumphant arrival in Downing Street; the hilarious internet video in which he and his new Chancellor, John Healey, pretended to like pork scratchings; the sweet summer vibes of reducing VAT on energy bills and capping bus fares at £2 and making diplomats pretend to be impressed as he massacred the Smiths’ “Rusholme Ruffians” on the guitar.
But the leaves were already falling, as were the prices of 30-year government bonds. September had arrived, and Andy Burnham, who once promised to pop the Westminster bubble from outside, was going to have to go back to parliament. His opposite number, Kemi Badenoch, had prepared by reshuffling her shadow cabinet.
She had sacked Priti Patel, an uncharacteristically crowd-pleasing decision with worrying implications for Labour. Was Badenoch getting better at politics? Perhaps not: she also used the reshuffle to appoint a new shadow chancellor, Andrew Griffith, who in September 2022 was appointed financial secretary to the Treasury by the then prime minister, Liz Truss.
Griffith had previously been the chairman of the takeaway delivery company Just Eat, but as one of Truss’s top financial experts he helped to write a mini-Budget that was found to contain large chunks of partially reheated Thatcher, and was delivered so carelessly that it led to widespread vomiting in financial markets. Subscribe to the New Statesman this summer - 2 months for only £2 Related
Source: New Statesman
