Purnell starts building his leadership platform

Since I hailed James Purnell as a possible Labour leader just over a year ago , CoffeeHousers have been, to put it politely, unconvinced. But pick up The Guardian today, and I tell you: my boy’s on track. He has given an interview to Allegra Stratton which puts him squarely in the frame to be Labour’s leader-after-next. She came away thinking that he’ll “probably never stand to be leader,” but my impression is different. I mean, he tells her that he decided to quit the government while sitting “on a park bench on a former council estate in his constituency”. Note, not at Eat (where he’d always nip out for drinkable coffee while at the DWP), not at one of his favourite Soho restaurants. His Newtonian apple drops while he’s sitting on a park bench in a touched-up Manchester scheme. Classic. Ms Stratton gives her take-home points from her interview here