Key facts
- Midgley told Vogue she is determined to win and does not soften her approach to keeping MPs in line.
- Midgley said she thinks Keir Starmer treated MPs as a number to go through a voting lobby.
- Midgley praised Burnham's approach, saying she would run through walls for him.
- One senior Labour MP said the government was scaring the PLP while appearing more human.
- Midgley worked as Jeremy Corbyn's deputy chief of staff and as Keir Starmer's senior special adviser.
Anneliese Midgley, the Labour government's chief whip and MP for Knowsley, gave a Vogue interview published on November 13, 2026 in which she set out a direct approach to party discipline. "I'm not going to take any shit and I don't fuck about," she told the magazine, adding that she is determined and will win.
Midgley criticized Keir Starmer's management of the parliamentary Labour Party, saying she thought he treated MPs as a number to go through a voting lobby. She praised Prime Minister Andy Burnham's approach, saying she would run through walls for him. Burnham wrote to MPs in July saying the whips' office should be an HR department rather than something to be feared.
Some Labour MPs had expected Burnham's leadership to end Starmer's strict party management and were surprised by Midgley's appointment. One MP said colleagues would be in her bad books, and a senior Labour MP said the government was scaring the PLP while appearing more human. Midgley previously worked as Jeremy Corbyn's deputy chief of staff and as Starmer's senior special adviser.