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| Melanie Onn - energy expertise |
IF she has not already been notified, Grimsby and Cleethorpes MP Melanie Onn should know by the end of this weekend if a place beckons for her on the Government front bench.
Although she may not have been tipped for high office in the mainstream media, 'king of the north' Andy Burnham could be lining up Ms Onn for a ministerial position in the Department of Energy.
Probably no one in Parliament has greater expertise when it comes to the merits of Renewable Energy, yet, at the same time, our MP has never known to have said anything to antagonise the likes of BP, Shell and the other multi-national giants of the fossil fuel world.
This is by contrast with current Energy Secretary Ed Miliband - seen by some as an anti-oil 'zealot'.
As Prime Minister, Andy Burnham knows, one of his chief tasks is to dispel the gloom that has long prevailed over much of the country and to make people feel cheerful again.
He is old enough to remember how, on the other side of the Atlantic, this was the challenge met by the ever-upbeat Ronald Reagan when he was President of the United States at the end of the last century
And to achieve this, he knows he needs to surround himself with happy, optimistic people - not glumsters.
Ms Onn fits the bill. She has a personable, ready-to-smile nature. People, of whatever political persuasion, are never uncomfortable when she is in the same room.
Also likely to in her favour as Mr Burnham reflects on who to appoint to his team is that, relatively speaking, she is northerner.
He will also have known that she had a gritty upbringing in a part of the country which has seldom been given its fair share of the nation's spoils.
Another possibility is that Ms Onn could be appointed Leader of the Commons.
In her first term in office (2015-19), she was, for a short while, Shadow Deputy Leader of the House when Jeremy Corbyn was Leader of the Opposition.
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