Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. James Mark Dakin Purnell (born 2 March 1970) is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Stalybridge and Hyde from 2001 to 2010. He is currently the Head of the Open Left project at the left leaning think tank Demos. He has previously served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport; he resigned from the Government on 4 June 2009, criticising the leadership of Gordon Brown.