Anneliese Midgley surprises colleagues after Burnham said whips’ office should not be ‘something to be feared’
If Andy Burnham has been accused of being a people pleaser by his critics, the same most certainly cannot be said of his chief whip.
“I’m not going to take any shit and I don’t fuck about,” said Anneliese Midgley, the Labour government’s newest head of party discipline, shedding some light on her direct approach to keeping MPs in line.
Midgley, the MP for Knowsley, who is one of the prime minister’s closest friends in government, has surprised some Labour MPs with her strikingly “frank yet glam” interview in Vogue in which she said she was determined to win. She also highlighted her unlikely journey from a deprived Liverpool housing estate via the arts world to the heart of government.
But it was her honesty in regards to being tough that caught attention from her Labour colleagues who hoped Burnham’s reign would be marked by an end to Keir Starmer’s strict party management style.
Burnham wrote to MPs back in July: “I want to create a different culture where MPs are happy and fulfilled doing their jobs, where everyone has a part to play and where opinions and approaches are respected, even where there’s difference … the whips’
