This would be a catastrophic mistake. Labour’s new leader needs to think again.

In a move that will alarm those hoping for genuine change from an incoming Andy Burnham government, former Blairite minister James Purnell, who has extensive corporate lobbying links, looks set to be the next Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff.

Purnell is tipped to take over one of the most powerful jobs in government, the role occupied by Morgan McSweeney under Keir Starmer until he was forced to resign in disgrace.

There are several reasons that this is very bad news. The privately educated Oxford graduate had a long relationship with Tony Blair since he worked as a researcher for him during summer vacations between 1989 and 1992. He then worked for the centre-left Institute of Public Policy Research before becoming a councillor in the London Borough of Islington.

It was during this time that one of his fellow councillors, Liz Davies, was chosen as the Labour prospective parliamentary candidate for Leeds North East, only to be overruled by the Party’s National Executive Committee in September 1995. Liz Davies later initiated legal proceedings against Purnell and two other Islington councillors who had made untrue allegations about her behaviour at Council meetings.  They were forced to apologise and pay an undisclosed sum to the general election fund of their local MP, Jeremy Corbyn.

When New Labour swept to power in 1997, Purnell became a special advisor in Downing Street for four years. He also worked for a media consultancy business.

Elected to the safe seat of Stalybridge and Hyde in 2001, Purnell was Chair of Labour Friends of Israel for two years before rising through the ministerial ranks to Cabinet membership as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport in 2007 and  Work and Pensions Secretary in January 2008.

Kenn on ‘welfare reform’, Purnell appeared to swallow wholesale the Thatcherite myth that the benefits system had created a ‘dependency culture’. He accepted in full investment banker David Freud’s report Reducing dependency, increasing opportunity: options for the future of welfare to work, which proposed greater involvement of the private sector and a more punitive benefits culture even before the Tory austerity years. The following year Freud defected to the Tories.

Purnell even proposed charging interest on crisis loans to the unemployed and pensioners made by the Department for Work and Pensions, which were interest-free, at a rate of up to 26.8% per annum. The proposal  was met with great hostility and blocked by Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Purnell evidently never forgave his leader and resigned from the government as the polls closed on the night of June 2009’s local and European elections, calling on Brown to quit at the same time. His resignation stole the headlines that night and the Murdoch-owned Times ran his resignation letter in full on its front page the following day.

He backed the right wing David Miliband for the Labour leadership in 2010. When Ed won the contest, Purnell turned down the job offer of Chief of Staff and, having left Parliament, made a good living in the world of consultancy.  In 2011, he again advocated ‘welfare reform’, saying that “freebies” such as the Winter Fuel Allowance and free bus passes should not be seen as sacred.

In recent years, Purnell has had a lower profile, working in broadcasting and the arts. But in 2024 he was appointed as CEO of Flint, a British international advisory business. It’s a role that has become a matter of considerable concern in relation to his expected new job under Andy Burnham. Big companies with important political links, including BP, Amazon, Jaguar Land Rover and Uber, are listed among Flint Global’s clients. The company says it advises international businesses and investors on policy, politics, regulation and competition.

“Until recently,” reports the Guardian, “Purnell held shares in the firm, which is owned through a holding company based in Jersey, making its structure opaque. It is majority owned by the private equity firm Cinven.

“Despite not publishing who it works for in the UK, a list of its clients from last year is registered on the transparency register of the EU, which includes Google, Microsoft and the mining firm Glencore. Apple appeared to be its biggest client in Europe.”

The paper continues: “Burnham’s choice of Purnell has already caused some consternation among many of his supporters on the Labour left, who fear it has echoes of Keir Starmer’s decision to appoint key Blairites such as Peter Mandelson as US ambassador and Tim Allan as director of communications – both of whom still had stakes in lobbying firms that they did not give up while in post.”

Green leader Zack Polanski called Purnell “a tireless campaigner for welfare cuts” and told openDemocracy: “It seems it’s out with the old and in with the old. What is it about this Labour government that is so keen on bringing in corporate lobbyists into the heart of Downing Street? This is starting to feel like a bit of a Blair and Starmer tribute act, with Labour Together’s Josh Simons also expected to have a senior role.”

Josh Simons, who also resigned in disgrace from Keir Starmer’s government, was director of the divisive faction Labour Together, whose appalling behaviour continues to be generate shock waves. Former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell MP today again reiterated his call for a public enquiry into the organisation.

As Cabinet Office minister, Simons was the centre of a scandal over an alleged smear campaign in which he falsely linked journalists investigating Labour Together to a “pro-Kremlin” network, reportedly hiring a PR firm to investigate Paul Holden, author of The Fraud, and forwarding its findings to the security services. He subsequently resigned his Makerfield seat, paving the way for Andy Burnham’s return to Westminster politics.

If Andy Burnham is serious about delivering change, that has to start at the top. Another former lobbyist in a senior Number Ten post – especially one with the welfare-cutting, Blair-supporting history of James Purnell – would be the wrong choice. Andy Burnham needs to think again.

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:James_Purnell_at_the_LCF21_digital_Graduate_Exhibition_at_Victoria_House_Basement_2021,_London_Photograph_Ana_Blumenkron.jpg Author: University of the Arts London, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.