I revealed in this morning’s FT that there are a dozen vacancies among the lowest ranks of government; the Parliamentary Private Secretaries. What does this mean? Well, it seems to suggest that many Labour MPs are resigned to defeat. Becoming a PPs is broadly thankless (and unpaid) but does usually offer the prospect of future promotion.
We had to commission Dods to do the research because no one in government had a list; 10 Downing Street, Cabinet Office, Labour.
Except that a Labour press officer last week told me our list of 12 vacancies was “inaccurate” because he had passed it on to the whips’ office and they had seen some inaccuracies.
Asked what the errors were – so we could be precise – I was told this was impossible. Surely if he thought our number was too high he would have shown me the true state of affairs. Does that mean that there could be even more than 12 vacancies?
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey