Thank you Dan. That belongs in the file. Mayfair, 2006. James Purnell organised it. Chris Bryant took the gavel. A signed copy of the Hutton Report into the death of Dr David Kelly, autographed by Cherie Blair and Alastair Campbell, auctioned as a party novelty. It raised £400. The Commons called it arrogant and crassly insensitive. They issued a joint apology and said they would not take the money. That is the judgment of the man now writing the day in No.10. If you have a receipt I missed, put it under this post. Not a vibe. Not a rumour. A document, a date, a quote, a register entry. The file is already fat. Help me make it undeniable.

You don't know who James Purnell is. That's exactly how he likes it. While you were busy watching Burnham on the news, this man moved into No.10. No election. No vote. No mandate. He just walked in and sat down. Let me introduce you to the man who is now running your country. Start with the money. When Purnell was Work and Pensions Secretary he claimed £395 on parliamentary expenses, your money, for an accountant's advice on the sale of his own London flat. He told Parliament the flat was his second home and drew the second home allowance on it. When he sold it he used the main residence rule with HMRC so no capital gains tax was due. Same property. Two different answers depending on who was asking. He was not found to have broken the rules. He was not asked to repay. He was the minister in charge of making sure you did not claim too much. While he was Culture Secretary he got caught out by a hospital photo. He was late to the event. The other MPs had already left. The hospital photographed him on the same spot and merged him into the group shot. The trust said he consented. He denied agreeing to a fake. Later emails showed the hospital telling him they would “drop you into the photographs” and sending him the doctored picture. Jeremy Hunt, then shadow culture secretary, said his position was “completely untenable.” He kept the job. That same year he stood in front of the TV industry and told them to clean up after a wave of fakery scandals. Weeks later he was in a faked photo. The man lecturing Britain on media integrity was in a cut and paste job from a hospital car park. Back to welfare. Purnell proposed charging 26.8 percent annual interest on crisis loans to the unemployed and pensioners. Not loan sharks. The government. Targeting people who needed emergency money for a broken boiler. Gordon Brown had to kill it. His department also trialled “voice risk analysis” lie detector style tests on benefits claimants. The trials were dropped. Disability campaigners still name him as one of the ministers who helped turn poverty into a character test. Then in 2009 he stabbed Gordon Brown in the back. He timed his resignation letter to drop at maximum political damage, called publicly for Brown to “stand aside,” and walked out. Not for the country. Not for the voters. He calculated it was the right move for him. The man who called for his own Prime Minister to quit is now the unelected Chief of Staff to the next one. He writes the day. Burnham reads it. After Parliament he went to the BBC. No programme making experience. Former Labour cabinet minister handed a director role at BBC Radio worth around £300,000. Conservative MPs called it a mockery of impartiality. He spent seven years inside the BBC. Then he left. Then came Flint Global. He became CEO of one of Britain's most secretive lobbying firms. Known clients have included BP, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Uber, Jaguar Land Rover and water industry interests. Flint refuses to publish its full UK client list. After Labour won, the firm met government 38 times across breakfasts, lunches, dinners and roundtables. On the official lobbying register it declared almost none of that. He hosted Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds at a dinner with defence and industry executives. Reynolds logged a dinner with Flint. He did not log the companies in the room. Those firms have since taken large government contracts. This is not a rumour. It is in the documents. He resigned from Flint in June 2026 to take the No.10 job. Flint said he had recused himself and would have no ongoing financial interest. The appointment still walked a man who had just been selling access through the black door. This is the man running No.10. Not elected. Not accountable. Not in the shot. You were shouting at the dummy. Meet the hand.