The old mate Andy Burnham has tapped to run his Downing Street – POLITICO

LONDON — Just before 10 p.m. on election night in 2009, the Blairite Cabinet minister James Purnell phoned Gordon Brown to resign. His shock-and-awe attempt to topple the prime minister flashed up on TVs in No. 10 Downing Street before he had even finished the call.

In the frantic operation that night to save Brown’s premiership, there was one Labour ally the PM’s team could rely on for support: Andy Burnham.

The then-culture secretary was “my standout memory of the Cabinet minister who was most keen to come out with a pledge of loyalty to Gordon as quickly as possible,” John Woodcock, one of those No. 10 aides (now an independent peer), recalled to POLITICO.