What is the impact of Keir Starmers resignation The Railways Bill and GBR?

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What does Keir's resignation mean for the Bill and GBR?

vuzzeho said:

What does Keir's resignation mean for the Bill and GBR?

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My guess is - nothing. Parliament will continue, Burnham doesn't have a drastically different opinion on rail nationalisation, so it'll just continue as normal.

Louise Haigh appears to be a Burnham supporter, so she might potentially swap places with Heidi Alexander again as SoS for Transport - or get some other senior cabinet job.
Burnham might possibly have a new policy on HS2, particularly the link from Handsacre to Crewe and on to Millington.
All that depends on who is Chancellor, and how much money there is (probably none).

There was an article on The Guardian a few days ago that seemed to suggest that Heidi Alexander had a good rapport with Burnham, especially as they have both been involved at a local and mayoral government level. I would be quite surprised if he moved her at this point. But then as @LNW-GW Joint said, Louise Haigh may also return. My impression is that the DfT is one area that appears to follow the Burnham trajectory already so would be surprised if there was more than a minor shake up.

We'll have to see how it all shakes out. Burnham isn't confirmed in the job yet (though I wouldn't bet against him), but I don't think that significant changes to whatever they've got planned for the GBR bill will be high on his agenda.

The impact will likely be very little. Labour don't have an interest in scrapping Great British Railways and because we aren't a Presidential system we can continue with the agenda even with a change in party leadership.

In the unlikely event that there's a change of party when a new mayor of Greater Manchester is elected, that'll change more than a change of PM will.
I didn't agree with Burnham (as GM Mayor) expanding his Bee Network branding onto the railways, and don't agree with West Yorkshire going down the same route either. Services don't magically end at a random station because that's the boundary (they used to, and it was very frustrating) so it makes no sense to brand services in a way that implies they do.

61653 HTAFC said:

In the unlikely event that there's a change of party when a new mayor of Greater Manchester is elected, that'll change more than a change of PM will.
I didn't agree with Burnham (as GM Mayor) expanding his Bee Network branding onto the railways, and don't agree with West Yorkshire going down the same route either. Services don't magically end at a random station because that's the boundary (they used to, and it was very frustrating) so it makes no sense to brand services in a way that implies they do.

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although, to be fair, I don't think there will be any policy change just because you don't happen to like them

vuzzeho said:

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The Railways Bill - discussion about the legislation that will create Great British Railways

That's very true, but we are now more than 30 years from the directive and the 'liberalisation' of European rail is still a work in progress - somewhat different from the smash and grab operation performed in Great Britain between 1993-96! The eu laws are no longer "in progress". They have been...

www.railforums.co.uk

What does Keir's resignation mean for the Bill and GBR?

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I doubt it will mean anything for the time being. Little is going to change, and Labour are going to continue to face the same structural issues that have been going on within their party for many years, and likewise the structural issues which have been affecting the country for many years.

The only difference is Burnham will probably be slightly less unpopular with certain very specific segments of the population, until such time as the novelty wears off, which probably won’t be long.

It’s also inevitable that there will be some significant distraction caused by the issue that Burnham wasn’t an MP at the time of the last election, so both himself and any significant policy changes won’t have been the subject of a manifesto. This could lead us on a number of directions, potentially including a general election where a different party (or combination of parties) win, in which case who knows where things go.

Given Burnham’s track record on public transport, it will interesting to see if his philosophies scale-up to the benefit of other parts of the UK. I also wonder, in his role as a stakeholder, how he feels about the DfT and how it could improve?

I’d suggest that transport under Burnham might do rather well, especially outside of London.

Harpo said:

Given Burnham’s track record on public transport, it will interesting to see if his philosophies scale-up to the benefit of other parts of the UK. I also wonder, in his role as a stakeholder, how he feels about the DfT and how it could improve?

I’d suggest that transport under Burnham might do rather well, especially outside of London.

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This doesn’t solve the issue that there’s no money. It’s one thing winning a by-election on a platform of “you poor people in the poor impoverished north, it’s so terrible your roads aren’t plated in gold like London’s are”, quite another to actually be in a position to deliver anything.

There's quite a lot of money, we just have a particular set of priorities. No guarantees adding £100bn per year to the government budget would lead to a meaningful increase in delivery of rail infrastructure. Even the transport budget is not at all small by international standards (per capita or by any other measure), it just gets spent differently.

Djgr said:

although, to be fair, I don't think there will be any policy change just because you don't happen to like them

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I didn't intend to suggest a causal link... but whoever becomes the next Labour leader (likely Burnham, but not guaranteed) will most likely continue with business as usual, at least at the Department for Transport. A new Labour mayor of Greater Manchester will likely do the same. However if a party other than Labour wins the mayoralty, there may be a shift in focus. The most attention-grabbing things Burnham did as mayor were to do with transport, and it seems to be one area that these devolved offices can have a visible impact.
That said, because it's so noticeable it may not be in the interest of a Tory or Reform mayor to upset the apple cart by making swingeing changes to the approach. As for a Green mayor (probably the next most likely after Labour) it probably depends on the person elected- if they're an "old Green" then I'd expect cycling and electrification of buses to be at the forefront... If they're a "new Green" It'll be an uncosted proposal to abolish bus fares, because "capitalism bad".