The latest transparency data shows Gordon Brown met four ministers across two departments in the space of just 48 hours in December. He met David Lammy in the MoJ to discuss “devolution“, and then had a chat with prisons minister James Timpson. At the Cabinet Office, he met Darren Jones and Nick Thomas-Symonds, the latter logged as a “general discussion on current UK politics“. His old friend and / or nemesis Tony Blair still gets his kicks in too. Pat McFadden met him in December for “a discussion about current affairs”. Yvette Cooper even had a private chat with him about “the Middle East” just before Christmas. As if he’s the man you want the Foreign Secretary listening to…
As Guido has previously reported, the New Labour old guard is embedded across Whitehall. Michael Ellam, Brown’s former director of communications, sits as Second Permanent Secretary for EU and international economic affairs in the Cabinet Office. Steve Field, another Brown-era Treasury comms director, was moved over as a Director General beneath him, leading on US trade and the G20. Justin Forsyth, a longtime Blair-Brown SpAd, has also been spotted hanging around Jonathan Powell in the Cabinet Office. When’s the last time bringing in a New Labour alumnus ever went wrong…
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