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Rumours Andy Burnham will be next to go; Reports Miliband could follow UPDATE: Miliband will NOT resign and does not agree with Purnell's decision

Andy BurnhamBy Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

UPDATE: David Miliband will not resign and does not agree with James Purnell's decision, he's said in a statement.

Rumours are spreading within the Party tonight that Andy Burnham, the Culture Secretary, is likely to resign from the cabinet over the next few days. He would be the sixth minister in as many days to step down after Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell left the government tonight.

Meanwhile, Radio 5 and Sky News are both strongly hinting that David Miliband may also step down in the next few days.

Burnham and Miliband were both staunch Blairites during the 1990s.

Posted on Jun 04, 2009 at 11:18pm

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Are you with BUPA Bill, seems Burnham has been moved to Health :) / :( ??
Simon Leonard @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
So true about out Tory friends. There was a joker on here yesterday by the name of Mark Smith who got himself into trouble with a bit of a questionable-racist post.

He didn't post again even though I begged him to :)

He did come on and change his original post though so I guess that's a tacit admission that it was racist to start with.

Maybe he's changed his name, have we had any 'new' Tories posting on here recently? I wonder :)

Perhaps there's a rota and it's shift change time.
Simon Leonard @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
Waiting for the next leap forward, very good.


Where's I Am The Resurrection gone? The Conservatives on LL always just disappear when they start looking daft, it's very annoying. Lighting the guns and running off home for their teas as ever!

PS I recall that Weller specifically wrote Eton Rifles about a group of Etonian schoolboys attacking people in a March for Jobs through Windsor in 1979 or 1980. Which was nice.
B Bendle @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
From the NME -

You have to feel a bit sorry for David Cameron this morning (October 8 2007).

Not only is the Conservative Party leader looking forward to at least two more years in opposition, but one of those pesky popular beat combos has made him look incredibly out of touch... again!

You would have thought “Daring Dave” would have learnt after his run in with Radiohead.

The Tory leader claimed that he wrote to the band ahead of a Friends Of The Earth concert and asked them to play ’Fake Plastic Trees’ for him and they duly obliged – cue the band strenuously denying any such dedication.

Then Cameron decided to have a pop at hoodies, blaming hip hop culture and earning himself a slap down in the process from Lethal Bizzle, who declared Britain’s would-be leader “a biscuit”.

Showing that he has in no way learnt from his past mistakes, today (October 8) The Sun’s political gossip column The Whip reports that he’s done it again, this time with The Jam.

The band’s bass player Bruce Foxton reveals: “I was just talking to David Cameron and he told me he was a fan of ’Eton Rifles’.”

Third time unlucky for the Tory leader.

You see, The Jam’s frontman Paul Weller wrote the song criticising the over-privileged who attend Eton School and then go on to dominate society all thanks to an accident of birth and the class system.

Fine, except an ex-pupil of that educational establishment just happens to be a certain David Cameron. D'oh!

Face it Dave - you and popular culture, it just ain’t going to happen dear.


Mixing pop and politics, he asked me what the use is,
I offered him embarrassment and my usual excuses.

Proper socialist that man :)
Simon Leonard @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
I suppose now that Cameron feels he can lay claim to Eton Rifles, we should be surprised at nothing - but those old cloth-eared Cons are always full of surprises!
B Bendle @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
Are you a republican Tory IATR (or Iatr)?

You know what Elizabeth My Dear is about don't you? Or did the meaning pass you by when you were listening to it aged 8.

Are you like Cameron - 'my favourite Smiths album is The Queen Is Dead, (hastily inserted) but I don't agree with the sentiment'.
Simon Leonard @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
I just left this message for you on another post, but don't you feel any sort of contradiction between being a Roses fan and a dedicated Tory? You know what "Bye Bye Badman" is about, right?

B Bendle @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
Wish I'd stayed up for your response, then again....

Just so you know, you are allowed to be aware of bands that were around before you. Can I recommmend The Beatles as a good place to start.

I kind of guessed you were a Stone Roses fan but if you're going to express your devotion through your username (how sweet, have you got it on your pencil case as well) could I suggest you use capital letters otherwise it just reads like you've got delusions of grandeur.
Simon Leonard @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
I welcome you to visit Leigh yourself Bill,
I've lived in Leigh all my life, and Andy is the best MP we've ever had.
Pick up a copy of the Leigh Journal or the Leigh Reporter and read the letters pages if you don’t believe me.
Keir Stitt @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
Thats the spirit! Condemn the anti-party crypto-tory blearites and the tactics of the underhand neo-labourite smith.

Send them for a (show)trial in the highest court of the party apparatchik for the their blatant crimes against the party of the
wurkers.

Airbrush them from the history of the party. Condemn them to a life in exile if not the gulag. Class traitors and
crypto bourgeoisie repressors of the wurker..

(Although I think it would go a little too far to actually shoot them)
Alan M @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
Too right, Tories Are Trolls: Lets hope both Blears and Purnell are referred to the star chamber. Both avoided CGT and have shown themselves to have a lack of integrity, not least financial. The labour party would be well rid of this pair of fakes.
Alan Giles @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
Glad Purnell has gone - talentless and characterless. Blears has betrayed the party. The current crisis is more about expenses than anything else, and MPs of all parties are responsible, not Brown. Yes Martin Lewis we need fewer career politicians and more people that work their way through the party and are actually respected by the membership.
tories aretrolls @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
Milicoward instantly shows that he doesn't have the bottle or decisiveness to be either Labour Leader or the PM.


Jonathan Cook @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
WELL IT IS AS I HAVE SAID WITH THESE CAREER POLITICIANS IE, STRAIGHT FROM SCHOOL TO UNIVERSITY INTO POLITICS WITHOUT EVEN HAVING A PROPER JOB, THEY ARE GUTLESS ,SPINELESS AND CAREERISTS THEY CANT EVEN TOUGH IT OUT, PATHETIC WIMPS, PURNELL, MILLIBAND, BURNHAM THEY DONT DESERVE TO BE IN POLITICS LOOKING AFTER THE WELFARE OF THE UK, GO GET A PROPER JOB.
martin lewis @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
Your a very funny Troll hahahaha.
Ralph Baldwin @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
Is it only Brian Clough that saw the role that drunken late-comers had to play in that tragedy?
Colin Murphy @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
P.S. I wouldnt F*** You if you were the last Labour voter alive...which you may well be! With that I will bid you and your party good night for a generation or so. See you in about 2022 ??
I am the resurrection @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
Sorry Bill...I don't know about him as constituency MP, I just mean purely at DCMS. I'm not saying he's done anything good there. He's just not done anything too bad (unlike Jowell)...and for Labour, no cock ups is a seriously good result!

More than happy to take your word at constituency level, I also readily accept that doing "better than Jowell" isn't exactly impressive!
I am the resurrection @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
Now that would be interesting. Justice and truth coming from the need to save one's political skin. Maybe GB could be of use after all!

I realise that may sound very callous and cruel, but I don't mean it that way. I just think that with Hillsborough it isn't about money or blame, its about the families wanting to put this at rest in their own minds. And aweful as it may sound, if GB wants to grasp the issue to try and save his Premiership, then gladly. At least some good would come out of the recent political farce.
Bill Dewison @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
Ermm think i'm a bit too young to even know any bay shitty rollers songs...

I thought we'd established I was a Stone Roses fan...never heard of Bye Bye Bad Man? Seriously...how apt??
I am the resurrection @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
He should force the issue with GB at the earliest opportunity.

Seems to me like Brown will be willing to hand out favours to anyone who'll be loyal right now.
Simon Leonard @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
Oh I agree, it really is a no win situation. No one will be honest with the families and until that happens it is a political no go area. No one can justify to them why it happened the way it did, so whether they turn up and face the crowd or hide away is irrelevant unless they have answers.

As far as Andy is concerned though I think he genuinely went in there without a clue. I just wish he'd backed up his claims and forced the issue. Then I would have eaten my hat and apologised to friends and family for my past rantings about the man.
Bill Dewison @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
F*** me, you're a Bay City Rollers fan. Tells me everything..
Simon Leonard @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
David Miliband's spine is about as firm as his famous banana.

As for Andy Burnham: I can see his mascara running already...
Max Sceptic @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
Very true. Another area where Labour should have done better than the Tories but didn't.

You're a smart bloke though Bill, if no government minister turned up to the memorial service the criticism would have been they don't care etc etc.

The definition of a no win situation I think.
Simon Leonard @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
Possibly, but then should't all politicans stay away until they can offer justice to the 96? The people there do not want lip service, they want real answers to real questions and unfortunately politicians from every party have been found wanting.
Bill Dewison @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
I welcome you to visit Andy's 'home' of Leigh and see whether you think he's a good guy. I won't ramble on as I usually do on the subject, but the people he is s'posed to represent deserve a lot better, they really do.
Bill Dewison @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
Promising something you can't deliver is idiotic not courageous. A new inquiry is above his pay grade.
Simon Leonard @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
Are you drunk? Depeche Mode have got nothing to do with this. Stay on topic :)
Simon Leonard @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
I didn't see that. I saw a man who walked into a situation and thought he could get away with splurging his pre-written dribble and was very quickly overtaken by the crowd. He read the situation well admittedly and gave the right facial expressions as if he was really bothered about what was going on, but I doubt he lost any sleep over the 96. Anyone with compassion would have led the whole affair with a proper tribute to the 96 and promised it would be revisited, that would have been real courage.
Bill Dewison @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
I REALLY dont think you want to be playing the song lyrics game! Do you have any idea how many songs have the words bye bye in them haha
I am the resurrection @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
You want to make yourself a bit clearer sunshine - sorry sonshhhiiinnnee. There were 2 names up there.

And if we're quoting song lyrics at each other try 'heavy words are so lightly thrown'.
Simon Leonard @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
I am indeed Akim, sorry for any confusion! Andy Burnham is a good man from personal experience
I am the resurrection @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
Still though I think Burnham did as well as could have been hoped! He's a Toffees man isnt he? I think it took a lot of balls for him to do that! I think he's a good man and he'll do the right thing tomorrow and resign.

Miliband wont though, he's a coward as proved by last year
I am the resurrection @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
We do Bill and I remember well your criticism of him about his time in Leigh.

I won't accept he's a coward without evidence though.

He knows Liverpool, would have well known that representing a government who refused a further inquiry into Hillsborough would get slaughtered at Anfield but still went when he could have ducked out.

He may be in-effective but I see no evidence to suggest he's a coward and unless posters on here have some, they shouldn't make the claim.
Simon Leonard @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
Not Burnham you Labour pleb...Milliband!

Why would I be on about Burnham? 1. We dont know what he'll do yet and 2. Seriously BURNHAM? Even his mum doesn't care!

And as for your other comments...I bear you no malice because...

I am the resurrection and I am the light
I couldn't ever bring myself to hate you as I'd like!!...Because you're not worth it my boy! Now go away and fiddle in the wilderness for a generation like a good boy!

I am the resurrection @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
Disagree Simon (we have a habit of this) Andy B. had no idea what the reaction would be at Hillsborough, no one did. He was taken by surprise and tried to contain the situation, which if you know anything about Liverpudlians is a really stupid idea.

Personally I would celebrate if he resigns his position. He shouldn't have the position in the first place as he hasn't earned the respect of the local people of his constituency. Let him posture for the sake of it and someone more deserving take the role.
Bill Dewison @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
On "This Week" abbots only defence of brown is at he can't be challenged with out a named challenger.

This reinforces the 'correctness' of browns cuckoo activities in destroying any credible opposition for the past decade - it leaves the party with no one of ability, but also gives abbot (and other backbenchers) the cry 'but he is the best we have'.

I agree that he is the best that labour have - brown has made it so - but labours best is worthless.
tory 'killed for telling the uncomfortable truth' troll @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
Simon - I think he's referring to DM
Akim Arowoyo @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
Based on what?

He went to Anfield knowing he was going to get slaughtered by the Liverpool fans at the Hillsborough memorial and could have ducked out but he didn't.

Change your username you muppet, you're not the resurrection. You're not even the Second Coming and that's saying something.
Simon Leonard @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
Knew he wouldn't...he's the ultimate coward!
I am the resurrection @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago
C'mon chaps, who is in charge of this runaway train?

There is simply no one left to govern the country. No one. Have some decency, Labour, and put Queen and country before your own narrow self-interest. Put yourself - and us - out of the misery of seeing our nation descend into political anarchy. Depose Gordon if you must, but whatever call an election now.
Andrew Cadman @ 35 weeks and 4 days ago