Andy Burnham is appalled. I had only asked whether there is any truth in the popular Westminster rumour about the ‘Primrose Hill Set’ — where he and other young Labour ministers allegedly meet on Sunday afternoons in the north London home of David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, to discuss life and politics. It sounded plausible enough: aged just 36, he is a health minister and tipped as one of Labour’s brightest hopes for the future. But the idea of belonging to a bourgeois dining club is, to him, almost libellous.
‘I have never had lunch in Primrose Hill,’ he declares. ‘The thing that excites me at the moment is a chip shop I’ve found which sells both mushy peas and gravy. That’s more me than Primrose Hill. And that is where I certainly do not fit the archetypal New Labour mould.’ But does he socialise with this group of ministers — they are all friends? ‘Of course. But I have never had lunch, dinner or even breakfast in Primrose Hill.’
In so many other ways Mr Burnham fits the mould perfectly. Now six months into his job as health minister, he has made his reputation as one of the most effective ministers in government. He is steeped in the New Labour project, advising a long line of Blairite ministers, then becoming an MP himself six years ago. While he has stayed outside Gordon Brown’s orbit, he is too useful, it is argued, for the Chancellor to ignore him if and when he forms his first Cabinet.
For such reasons, Mr Burnham was named the Threadneedle/Spectator’s ‘Minister to Watch’ in our Parliamentarian of the Year awards last month. When we meet in his vast Department of Health office, he is still not quite sure what to make of the award, especially as he has a lifelong suspicion of conservatives.
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