Matthew Holehouse
@matthewholehouse
Public policy editor based in the Britain section at The Economist
Of Burnham’s five priorities for office, four - or three if you’re generous - are essentially partisan and party-facing. Only devolution really constitutes a government agenda
Take Back Control (Andy Burnham July 2026; Keir Starmer, Jan 2023). The idea that when people voted for Brexit, they were, deep down, expressing a wish for devolution and dirigisme is not a new one for the Labour Party.
A footnote from Gareth Rhys Williams for context to the PPE decision-making: a morbid debate about whether ordering 90,000 body bags a month - 1 million a year - was excessive or prudent.
See also evidence from Gareth Rhys Williams - the glut in over-ordered PPE was due to a number of factors, including demand from the NHS and the success of domestic procurement. But also because the "shrinkage" rate was revised down dramatically as supplies turned out to be more reliable than feared
In the end, supplies were more reliable at turning up, and better quality, than modelling by McKinsey given to officials suggested, meaning overprocurement. The so called "shrinkage" rate of ~10% was around half that forecast, per evidence from the Cabinet Office...
And a fascinating verdict on Andrew Feldman, at the centre of a lot of HPL coverage as a point of contact: "This expertise was useful, and in a future pandemic such help should be encouraged."
Interesting conclusion on the "high priority lane" - misguided, favouratist and harmful to public trust, but falls short of "cronyism or corruption". Suspect relevant former ministers will be pleased with that finding.
The Hallett inquiry's solution to £10bn in excess PPE orders (which may or may not have been a good idea, it's on the fence) is to build a domestic PPE industry like Germany's to provide "manufacturing resilience". £200m of 2020's Twitter takes there.
The other-worldly quality of the Judge Hallett inquiry continues. On the one hand, £10bn in PPE wasted; on the other, "better to have too much PPE rather than too little."
It’s so obvious that this - two years in prison for concealment or obfuscation - is going to be a field day for the Burnham govt’s opponents on the activist right first of all. It’s hard to see why they wouldn’t have grounds for at least challenge over eg the secret Afghan evacuation.
MPs agree the bill is a great idea. To date they seem pretty incurious as to whether it will work. economist.com/britain/2026...
A very odd piece; reads more like the airing of an internal HR grievance - a message to disgruntled staff from management - to rather than a pitch to the nation. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/07...
Burnham indicates he’ll pick up where Starmer left off on UK-EU reset
The Ockenden report raises yet more questions about whether a duty of candour across Whitehall (aka the Hillsborough law) will make the state more honest. At NUH the duty did nothing to halt the systemic cover-up of deaths and injury by execs and senior doctors. If anything, it encouraged it.
Wooldridge on Burnham Britain is a victim of government by emotional spasm www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
A nugget from the 2015 Labour leadership contest, and perhaps a counterpoint to the idea that any other leader than Corbyn would have won the referendum...
Recalling a favourite Starmer anecdote. Seems possible between the speeches and the inevitable post at a law firm that Starmer ends up towards the top end of former PM earnings...
Ashton Town FC is very Starmeresque location for a victory rally
www.ft.com/content/9017... from Janan: The end of the popular politician
Streeting's campaign confirms that rejoining the EU in the long term would be government policy under his premiership. A little firmer than the Progress speech:
The as-a-father zip-up, donned only in moments of great national significance, is the British equivalent of the American president’s leather flight jacket
What Al Carns describes has traditionally been the prime minister’s job
You have to go back a long way to find a prime minister so reluctant to use the normative power of his office.
It's possible the much-traduced "Boriswave" ends up doing very well - by comparison to British-born workers and earlier waves of migration.
Something like this might fit; at least for a Conservative Party more confident in its own electoral coalition and in the durability of Brexit.