James Purnell

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Dear Gordon,

We both love the Labour Party. I have worked for it for 20 years and you for far longer. We know we owe it everything and it owes us nothing. I owe it to our party to say what I believe no matter how hard that may be. I now believe your continued leadership makes a Conservative victory more, not less likely.

That would be disastrous for our country. This moment calls for stronger regulation, an active state, better public services, an open democracy.

It calls for a government that measures itself by how it treats the poorest in society. Those are our values, not David Cameron's.

We therefore owe it to our country to give it a real choice. We need to show that we are prepared to fight to be a credible government and have the courage to offer an alternative future.

I am therefore calling on you to stand aside to give our party a fighting chance of winning. As such I am resigning from government. The party was here long before us, and we want it to be here long after we have gone. We must do the right thing by it.

I am not seeking the leadership, nor acting with anyone else. My actions are my own considered view, nothing more.

If the consensus is that you should continue, then I will support the government loyally from the backbenches. But I do believe that this question now needs to be put.

Thank you for giving me the privilege of serving.

Yours,

Rt Hon James Purnell MP [20]

Post-parliamentary career

On 19 February 2010, Purnell announced he would be standing down as an MP later that year, saying "I have decided that I no longer wish to be an MP. I have spent all my working life in or about Westminster. And while this has been a huge privilege, I've realised I don't want to have spent all my life in frontline politics." [21] He pointed to his work with Demos as occupying him in the immediate future. [21]

After leaving parliament, Purnell became the chair of the Institute for Public Policy Research. It was touted that he would stand for the Labour candidacy to become Mayor of London, but he decided against this option. [22] He supported David Miliband in the 2010 Labour leadership election and worked for his campaign, although he was subsequently offered the job of chief of staff to the new leader of the Labour Party, Ed Miliband, a job he turned down.

Purnell became linked with the Blue Labour movement within the Labour Party [23] and in April 2011 he was appointed by the Boston Consulting Group as a Special Advisor to their Public Sector Group. [24] In July 2011, he appeared on Newsnight with proposals for welfare reforms, as part of his involvement in Blue Labour. He called for a National Salary Insurance, a job guarantee and free universal childcare, but also said that "freebies" such as Winter Fuel Allowance and free bus passes should not become sacred. He did not rule out returning to Parliament in 2015, but declared his support for Ed Miliband and his leadership.

BBC career

In February 2013 Purnell left the IPPR in order to rejoin the BBC as its Director of Strategy, on a salary of £295,000; [25] he assumed this position on 20 March. [26] As a senior BBC employee he had to resign his membership of the Labour Party.

An Employment Tribunal for unfair dismissal was brought by the BBC's former Chief Technology Officer, John Linwood, when he lost his job in 2013 after the Corporation's £100m Digital Media Initiative failed. During the case an email from Purnell was cited in evidence, which read: "We need a clear line on [John Linwood] on whether he is resigning or being fired and why". The tribunal's response to this was: "It was notable that there was no third option in Purnell's mind, such as a different disciplinary outcome." The tribunal found the BBC's processes to have given an "apparently cavalier disregard for any of the accepted norms of a fair disciplinary process", and that there was a "deeply ingrained cultural expectation within the organisation of sacrificial accountability". Linwood was awarded £80,000 in damages, and it was later revealed that the BBC had spent £498,000 defending the claim. [27]

In late September 2016, Purnell was appointed as the BBC's Director of Radio and Education, in succession to Helen Boaden. [28] He took up his new position in late October 2016. [2] The Daily Telegraph described a key facet of his role as attracting younger listeners and viewers to the BBC. [3]

In September 2020 the new director-general Tim Davie removed Purnell from his new smaller executive board. Purnell left the BBC that year to become president and vice-chancellor of University of the Arts London in spring 2021. [3]

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References

  1. ↑ Conlan, Tara (14 February 2013). "James Purnell to rejoin BBC". The Guardian.
  2. 1 2 Sweney, Mark (30 September 2016). "BBC confirms James Purnell as radio chief". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 September 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 Simpson, Craig (23 October 2020). "James Purnell to leave the BBC after being dropped from board by new director-general" . The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
  4. ↑ "James Purnell takes on ippr chair role". LabourList. 20 July 2010.
  5. ↑ "BCG – Global Management Consulting". Boston Consulting Group.
  6. ↑ "BBC – James Purnell, Director, Strategy & Digital – Inside the BBC" . Retrieved 13 September 2015.
  7. ↑ Stevenson, Alexander (2013). The Public Sector: Managing The Unmanageable. Kogan Page Limited. ISBN   978-0-7494-6777-7.
  8. ↑ Letters, Prospect , February 2005
  9. ↑ "Which? awards for the best of the best revealed". Archived from the original on 28 June 2008.
  10. ↑ "NHS trust faked MP visit picture". BBC News. 28 September 2007.
  11. ↑ John Plunkett (12 September 2007). "Culture secretary James Purnell 'optimistic' on TV's future". the Guardian.
  12. ↑ Chris Hastings; Laura Donnelly (30 September 2007). "Labour MPs admit plan to fake Purnell photo". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 17 November 2014. James Purnell, the Culture Secretary, came under increasing pressure over a fake photo last night, after two Labour MPs revealed they planned in advance for it be altered.
  13. ↑ Winnett, Robert (21 December 2008). "Ministers abandon punitive interest rates on emergency loans". London: Daily Telegraph . Retrieved 21 December 2008. Ministers have been forced to hastily abandon plans to charge punitive rates of interest on emergency loans for the poor.
  14. 1 2 Watt, Holly (21 May 2009). "MPs' expenses: James Purnell and Geoff Hoon avoided tax on home sales". London: Dailly Telegraph. Retrieved 5 June 2009.
  15. ↑ Woolf, Marie; Watt, Holly (10 February 2008). "James Purnell's £20,000 tax trick". London: Times Online. Retrieved 5 June 2009.
  16. ↑ Gardham, Duncan (26 April 2009). "Minister James Purnell accused of leaving his flat 'like a pigsty'". London: Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 29 April 2009. Retrieved 5 June 2009.
  17. ↑ Rosa Prince (4 May 2009). "James Purnell 'claimed expenses on flat partly paid for by his girlfriend'". London: Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 11 May 2009. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
  18. ↑ Addley, Esther (5 June 2009). "James Purnell grasps the moment and strikes at the heart of No 10". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 5 June 2009.
  19. ↑ "PM told to go as minister quits". BBC News. 4 June 2009. Retrieved 5 June 2009.
  20. 1 2 "Purnell resignation letter". BBC News. 4 June 2009. Retrieved 4 June 2009.
  21. 1 2 "James Purnell to stand down as MP". BBC News. 19 February 2010. Retrieved 5 May 2010.
  22. ↑ "Alan Johnson v Boris Johnson for London Mayor". London Evening Standard. 18 May 2010. Archived from the original on 11 August 2010.
  23. ↑ "Blue Labour: Party's radical answer to the Big Society?". BBC News. 21 March 2011.
  24. ↑ "The Boston Consulting Group strengthens their Public Sector group by appointing James Purnell, Senior Advisor". Boston Consultancy Group in London. 7 April 2011.
  25. ↑ Tara Conlan "James Purnell to rejoin BBC", guardian.co.uk, 14 February 2013
  26. ↑ "James Purnell, Director, Strategy & Digital", Inside the BBC
  27. ↑ Jo Faragher "BBC spent close to £500,000 fighting unfair dismissal claim", Personnel Today, 5 November 2015
  28. ↑ "James Purnell becomes BBC radio chief". BBC News. 30 September 2016. Retrieved 30 September 2016.
The Right Honourable
James Purnell
James Purnell at the LCF21 digital Graduate Exhibition at Victoria House Basement 2021, London Photograph Ana Blumenkron.jpg
Purnell in 2021
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
In office
24 January 2008 –4 June 2009
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Stalybridge and Hyde
2001–2010 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
2007–2008		Succeeded by
Preceded by Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
2008–2009		Succeeded by
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