Darren Jones
Chief secretary to the prime minister
Keir Starmer has poached Reeves’s effective deputy for the newly created post of chief secretary to the prime minister. A reliable communicator and a willing attack dog, Jones is expected to do lots of media for the PM on the government’s message and delivery, and take on the threat from Reform.
Regarded as hardline on the economy, Jones was Reeves’s firewall in tense negotiations with cabinet ministers over the spending review.
But he is also a loud progressive, who has called for Labour to be the party of “love, compassion and community” to face off against Nigel Farage’s politics of “anger, division and blame”.
Tim Allan
Executive director of communications
The most controversial appointment of the shake-up – Allan is a veteran spinner from the Tony Blair government and the founder of PR mega-agency Portland.
An extremely experienced communications specialist – his appointment is part of what one senior staffer told colleagues was more “grownups” returning to government – although that description has raised defensive hackles internally.
Some special advisers are very concerned about Portland’s previous links to lobbying for the governments of Kazakhstan, Russia and Qatar – including for the controversial 2022 World Cup – and believe it will be a major issue for the government. Allan left the firm in 2019 and Portland stopped lobbying on behalf of Russia in 2014.
Most of Allan’s past colleagues describe him as charming and collegiate – although he will be well on the right of the party. Steve Richards, the former Labour adviser, recalled Allan’s No 10 leaving do 20 years ago where Blair teased he was “even more rightwing than me.”
Minouche Shafik
Said to have been Starmer’s choice for cabinet secretary, the former deputy bank of England governor has finally been lured to Downing Street to add much needed economic heft to the operation.
Shafik had a controversial tenure at Colombia University over pro-Gaza protests that eventually forced her resignation, but in No 10 she will be back in her specialism and she has held a major Whitehall role before as permanent secretary at the Department for International Development.
Along with Jones and Starmer’s new private secretary, Daniel York-Smith, who comes from the Treasury, Starmer is clearly tooling up for big battles to come on the economy.
Morgan McSweeney
Prime minister’s chief of staff
McSweeney remains the most powerful member of the prime minister’s inner circle, his most trusted adviser and the man he credits for the sweeping election victory. But those close to McSweeney admit that his skill is strategy and politics, rather than delivery and policy and say there has been a major need to bolster the operation with experts in driving through delivery of radical change.
McSweeney and his team – as well as Starmer himself – have been privately extremely frustrated with the pace of change in Whitehall since Labour came to office and part of the shake-up is giving the prime minister more direct oversight of delivery.
Steph Driver
Director of communications
Driver has long been Starmer’s most trusted adviser on communications and is well liked across all of Whitehall’s special advisers. There is a some discomfort especially among female advisers that Allan appears to have been promoted over Driver, when she had previously shared the role with James Lyons, who is leaving the government.
Driver, who never left Starmer’s side during the election campaign and was responsible for briefing the prime minister, is still likely to remain the day-to-day communications frontline. “As far as the rest of government is concerned, Steph Driver will continue to lead comms,” one adviser said.
Dr Stuart Ingham
Outgoing policy chief becoming senior counsel to the PM and director of strategic interventions
Ingham is Starmer’s longest serving adviser – having joined for his leadership bid and lead the party’s policy team in opposition. He is extremely close to his boss and has survived numerous attempts to oust him by newcomers.
He will move to the political team, headed by McSweeney, which also includes director of political strategy Paul Ovenden. “ Stuart will be freed from managing the team and will be advising him directly,” one source said. “Keir is keeping the people he trusts close.”
Vidhya Alakeson
Alakeson is said to be the brainchild behind the No 10 shake-up, in consultation with Whitehall fixer and Starmer confidante Louise Casey. The changes at the top are said in part to have been prompted by the success of hiring Jonathan Powell, the former Blair chief of staff, who has been Starmer’s foreign policy adviser and a much needed experienced hand in the sometimes chaotic first year in power for Labour.
Alakeson will take on the expanded and additional responsibilities for policy and delivery, alongside Nin Pandit who had been the prime minister’s private secretary. However, a new policy unit director is expected to be appointed in the coming months.
Louise Casey
Informal strategic adviser
It had been long rumoured Starmer had hoped to appoint Lady Casey to a permanent role in his team – or even as a minister. She has long been an informal adviser and was with him on election night. Casey has a formidable reputation for her enquiries undertaken on behalf of numerous governments, from grooming gangs to racism in the Metropolitan police.
But instead she has taken on the brief of outlining a new social care system – not expected to report back for two years or more. However, Casey is said to have been providing advice on how Starmer can better structure No 10, including the idea of a chief secretary.
