Henry Zeffman

speaker

1,893 appearances 15 recordings 1 series first heard Apr 2026 last heard 13 Sep

Henry Zeffman’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 — 15 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 5.

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Newscast · Is Andy Burnham Rewarding Starmer’s Challengers? · 22 Jul 2026 podcast

I mean, you know, I could have kept going after the great officers of state, by the way, to say that the next traditionally most senior job defence secretary has gone to Wes Streeting, of course, who was for a long period of time the most plausible rival to Keir Starmer.

And if Anas Sarwar had got his wish and Keir Starmer had gone in February, well, Andy Burnham wouldn't have been available and it may well have been Wes Streeting who might have succeeded Keir Starmer at that point.

I mean, I think actually every reshuffle or every set of government appointments, because this isn't really a reshuffle, it's a new government, every instance where Keir

dozens and dozens, in fact, more than 100 MPs are either being appointed or being sacked, creates a massive group of the dispossessed, as well as a massive group of the never possessed, the people who thought that they might have got jobs and turn out to discover that they're not going to get jobs and perhaps were never in line for the kind of jobs that they thought they were in line for.

That was true of Keir Starmer's

last and indeed first major reshuffle that he did in September 2025.

I think there's a strong argument that that was one of the things which stored up a lot of political pain for him.

Might well have been worth it to get the right people in the right jobs as he saw it.

But you will absolutely, over the coming months and years, be able to trace back particular episodes where things go wrong for Andy Burnham or where he encounters dissent from

MPs or groups of MPs, you will absolutely be able to trace that back to the decisions that he's been making over the past couple of days about personnel.

I think he took a leave of absence.

And the other example, by the way, is the recently departed Welsh First Minister, Eluned Morgan, or as she was known in Westminster before she went to Wales, Baroness Morgan.

So I think you can keep your title and also keep the possibility of returning there at some point.

But yeah, absolutely.

Yes, that's right.

Some people will have seen some of the footage of the cabinet, the new cabinet, before their first meeting as Andy Burnham's cabinet on Tuesday.

They were having tea and coffee in the Downing Street garden.

OK, so that was Wes Streeting, who is now the Defence Secretary, talking to Shabana Mahmood, who remains the Home Secretary, about Alex Norris, who is the new Justice Secretary.

And Wes Streeting said of Alex Norris, he is the enemy now.

Shabana Mahmood said, no, he's not.

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