Former Transport Secretary Louise Haigh, who is tipped for a major role in a Burnham Cabinet, insisted Andy Burnham had a blueprint for his first 100 days in No10
PM-in-waiting Andy Burnham has been working on his plan for Downing Street for at least a year, close ally Louise Haigh has said.
The former Transport Secretary – tipped for a major role in a Burnham Cabinet – insisted the ex-Greater Manchester Mayor had a blueprint for his first 100 days in No10.
Her comments came as Mr Burnham’s path to power became clearer as nominations opened on Thursday in the Labour leadership contest to replace Keir Starmer.
Former defence minister Al Carns – believed to be his last remaining Labour MP mulling a challenge- confirmed he would not stand against him. It means Mr Burnham will almost inevitably take office on July 20 without a contest.
Appearing on the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast, Ms Haigh was asked how long Mr Burnham had been thinking about what he might do as Prime Minister.
She replied: “I don’t think I am breaking any state secrets to say Andy has been thinking and has had his ambition, his ambitions have been clear for some time.”
She added: “Of course he’s run for leader twice before, so this is hopefully, touch wood, third time, third-time lucky. So he’s, you know, he’s been thinking about this and certainly planning for this, for this moment, for at least a year.”
Asked on whether there was a plan for the first 100 days, Ms Haigh said: “Yes, of course there’s a plan.” But she added: “I’m not going to tell you about it here.”
Ms Haigh – a crucial figure in Mr Burnham’s victorious Makerfield by-election campaign – has been involved in transition talks with the civil service in recent weeks.
She has been working alongside Mr Burnham and James Purnell, who is set to be the new No10 chief-of-staff, with a focus on national security, the economy, and devolution.
It follows the admission from Mr Starmer’s ex-chief-of-staff, Morgan McSweeney, that Labour did not enough to prepare for power in the run-up to the 2024 general election.
He said early mistakes including the decision to cut winter fuel payments for pensioners, “defined the government in a way that really did us a lot of damage”.
Ms Haigh rejected claims Mr Burnham was “unprepared or inexperienced” because of his nine years away from Westminster while Mayor of Greater Manchester.
She said: “He has spent that time thinking very deeply about how the country is run, what holds regions like Greater Manchester, and therefore most regions and the devolved nations of this country, back. He has got very, very clear ideas and a plan to put that right.”
Ms Haigh also criticised the outgoing Mr Starmer for the “hurtful” way he removed her from Cabinet and accused his operation of deliberately seeking to “knock my character down” with briefings afterwards.
The Sheffield Heeley MP quit as transport secretary in 2024, several months after Labour came into power, after it emerged she had pleaded guilty to a criminal offence related to incorrectly telling police that a work mobile phone was stolen in 2013.
She told the BBC that Downing Street had initially signed off a statement from her saying she had previously disclosed the matter to Mr Starmer – but then his chief of staff Morgan McSweeney rang and asked her to resign.
She said: “I had to really push even for a conversation with Keir, he didn’t want to have that conversation with him himself, and both Morgan and he kept saying, ‘Well, additional information has emerged’, but at no point would any of them tell me what that additional information was.
“And afterwards they repeated that. And it was painful because they could have said, ‘Look, these headlines are awful, and it’s not going to be nice for you to ride them out’.
“And it wasn’t. And to be honest, I would have agreed, and I would have gone on that basis because I didn’t particularly want to ride them out. It was embarrassing, and it wasn’t pleasant to go through.
“But to pretend that I hadn’t told him and to brief so consistently and so viciously for quite a number of weeks after that was a deliberate attempt to knock my character down.”
