Daniel Boffey

speaker

353 appearances 2 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2026 last heard 15 Sep

Daniel Boffey’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Sep 2026 with 1.

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The Indo Daily · Can new UK prime minister Andy Burnham heal British politics? · 21 Jul 2026 podcast

Again, the Tessa Jowell thing.

He's got this kind of strange little helpers, and they describe them as the Westminster mums.

There are a series of sort of middle-aged women who are really supportive, really sort of like them.

There was Hazel Bliers, Margaret Beckett, and Tessa Jowell, who really helped him along.

And his first job step towards ministerial level was as a primary private secretary to David Blunkett, who was then the Home Secretary.

And he got that job because Tessa had

said hey david here's my former advisor now an mp he's a good guy and that job is basically being the ears and eyes for a cabinet minister in the house of commons advising you how do the mps feel about this particular piece of legislation you're pushing through who likes it who doesn't like it and from there he becomes a home office minister the health minister yeah he does very quickly he becomes part of the senior positions in the labour government at that time

They're all quite spectacular failures in their own different ways.

In 2010, I mean, I don't think he really thought... He was in a position, it was credible for him to put himself up.

There was a lot of pressure from David Miliband to not put himself up, saying, look, no, don't go, back me, put your supporters behind me.

But he thought he had something different to say that, no, I'm not a factional politician.

I'm not a Blairite, not a Brownite.

I'm, you know, proper Labour.

I'm aspirational socialism.

He had a sort of a landmark policy, which was a 10% inheritance tax, which would pay for social care.

He thought he had something to say.

The reality was that election became a battle between Ed Miliband and David Miliband.

That's what all the headlines.

And he ended up fourth out of fifth behind Ed Balls.

I don't think he really ever stood a chance, and the campaign just didn't take off, and the only story in town was the Miliband fratricide.

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