Andy Burnham is not short of advice about cabinet appointments. But here’s a bit more counsel for him. He should keep Pat McFadden as work and pensions secretary. 

McFadden is an essential minister. Not just because he has a record of being sensible and level-headed, being able to go on the radio and TV and handle all the bombs and brickbats that are thrown at him. The reason that McFadden should remain in charge of welfare policy is that he has been willing to do the most important thing in current politics: he has told the truth to the Labour party.

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‘I don’t believe government fulfils its responsibilities simply by writing a cheque. I think we owe people more than that,’ McFadden has said this week about welfare policy. 

That correct and convincing public quotation matches what he’s saying in private. In a WhatsApp message to Peter Mandelson, leaked earlier this year, McFadden lamented the tendency of his parliamentary colleagues to always ask who could be taxed in order to fund more payments in welfare.

McFadden is a veteran Blairite who served in the No. 10 operation between 1997 and 2005 and remains close to the master. That background, plus his candour about welfare spending, has not always endeared him to........

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