THE cases of Varun Chandra and Andy Burnham remind me of a practice at the Daily Mail of deliberately instigating internal dissent within the newsroom.
It worked like this. Two reporters would be assigned to the same story to work independently of each other. In fact, they were competing with each other in the knowledge that only one of their stories would make the paper. This practice was known as “creative tension”.
Christian TurnerEtienne Laurent/AFP via Getty Images
We now have examples of this practice in government. Lord Peter Mandelson was sacked as British ambassador in Washington after emails revealed he had too cosy a relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer’s business adviser, Varun Chandra, was interviewed for the role because of his strong contacts in the US (see story on page 29). However, the post ultimately went to career diplomat Christian Turner.
Chandra has since been appointed the prime minister’s special envoy to the US on trade and investment.
Perhaps Chandra and Turner are close friends and will get on fine. There is a good chance, though, that Turner will feel Chandra is being allowed to tread on his turf.
Varun ChandraEtienne Laurent/AFP via Getty Images
We know the mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham, wanted to return to the Commons so there could be a bit of creative tension between him and the prime minister.
For now, Burnham has been blocked in an eight-to-one vote by Labour’s National Executive Council from standing in the forthcoming by-election in Gorton and Denton.
One assumes Burnham was not stepping down as mayor of Manchester so that he could be a backbench MP.
Starmer was one of the eight who voted to block Burnham’s candidacy. There will perhaps be even more creative tension now that Burnham’s ambitions to replace Starmer as prime minister have been thwarted – for the time being.
It is possible Starmer has done Burnham a big favour.
