No one will thank Liz Kendall for doing her job

There are three thankless posts in a modern Labour government. There’s the Chancellor, who has to announce the tightening of belts and the hiking of taxes; the Home Secretary, who must busy themselves cracking down, banging up and throwing away the key; and the Work and Pensions Secretary, who is charged with Scroogeing every last penny out of the benefits system.

These are the ministers Labour’s grassroots and its graduate liberal voters love to hate, but they likely do more to keep Labour in power than their more popular colleagues. Labour liberals have an outsized influence in policy debates, overrepresented as they are in the BBC, the NGOs and academia, but the gap between them and the median Labour voter is significant, not least on welfare.

Liz Kendall is this government’s number one hate figure. She has to reform a welfare system that is leviathan in size and cost.