Burnham goes to Sainos, Fuse CEO short circuits and Tugendhat flip flops on triple lock; catch up on the latest gossip in The Capitalist

THE TRIPLE LOCK HOP

When she became the leader of the opposition, Kemi Badenoch said her shadow cabinet would remain unchanged until the election. But with Burnham’s rise to Number 10, she has decided to launch a reshuffle. Mel Stride and Priti Patel, who were both namechecked in Robert Jenrick’s speech on why he left the Tories for Reform, were sacked. In the changing of guard came the promotion of Katie Lam and Tom Tugendhat, who have both been vocal enough on the Tory backbenches to catch the attention of the party’s leader.

Lam, who is now the shadow housing secretary, came under fire for going off-message last year on immigration. Tugendhat, on the other hand, has been a staunch critic of the triple lock pension, which is backed by Badenoch. He called it a “Ponzi scheme” at the party’s conference last year and attacked fellow Tories for defending the “unsustainable” way the state pension can rise above workers’ wages. Badenoch’s spokesman told The Capitalist that Tugendhat was fully subscribed to the Conservatives’ policy platform. A source close to Tughendhat said he never actually called for the triple lock pension to be scrapped. Hmmmmm…

WHERE BURNHAM BUYS HIS BEST CLOTHES

Andy Burnham’s sartorial choices have attracted many column inches. Though the Prime Minister has put his trainer-clad foot down and refused to wear a suit for any event outside of the Commons, he jumped at the chance to don a burgundy Sainsbury’s fleece last week. At his visit to a supermarket in Nine Elms, London, it was the Prime Minister, not the supermarket, that insisted he be allowed to wear the garments usually reserved for store-front staff, complete with a name badge featuring a rather modest ‘Andy’. Sainsbury’s comms staff – surprised by the request – eventually allowed Burnham to wear his prized fleece for the cameras, though they did not let him take it home.

FUSE CEO SHORT CIRCUITS

Getting CEOs to exhibit character can often be akin to squeezing blood out of a stone (see the number of citations for Atomic Habits as favourite book in our Square Mile and Me column). But The Sunday Times appears to have found a new low with former City AM hack William Turvill crowning ex-Revolut exec Alan Chang (now CEO of buzzy energy startup Fuse) the “worst ‘life of’ interviewee he’s ever had”. Favourite film? “I don’t watch films.” Book? “I don’t read books.” Charity? “I don’t believe in charities.” 

The Capitalist attempted to get in touch with Chang to see how he felt about such an appraisal but discovered the $5bn startup does not yet have an internal PR team – which may explain a lot.

DOWNING ST-AYCATION

With Andy Burnham spending half his time up North, perhaps renting out his Downing Street pad could be a welcome way to help with the running costs. Tourists browsing Booking.com may have seen the “1 bedroom apartment in the heart of London” – complete with No. 10’s iconic black door – advertised for the reasonable rate of £55 a night. Was this Keir Starmer’s parting prank? In fact, it was the work of consumer champions Which? who set up the fake listing to demonstrate how easy it was for people to be scammed. Booking.com hosted the property for six weeks before its “sophisticated AI” kicked in and removed it.