\n<\/p>\n
Chief secretary to the prime minister <\/p>\n
Keir Starmer has poached Reeves\u2019s 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\u2019s message and delivery, and take on the threat from Reform.<\/p>\n
Regarded as hardline on the economy, Jones was Reeves\u2019s firewall in tense negotiations with cabinet ministers over the spending review.<\/p>\n
But he is also a loud progressive, who has called for Labour to be the party of \u201clove, compassion and community\u201d to face off against Nigel Farage\u2019s politics of \u201canger, division and blame\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Executive director of communications<\/p>\n
The most controversial appointment of the shake-up \u2013 Allan is a veteran spinner from the Tony Blair government and the founder of PR mega-agency Portland.<\/p>\n
An extremely experienced communications specialist \u2013 his appointment is part of what one senior staffer told colleagues was more \u201cgrownups\u201d returning to government \u2013 although that description has raised defensive hackles internally.<\/p>\n
Some special advisers are very concerned about Portland\u2019s previous links to lobbying for the governments of Kazakhstan, Russia and Qatar \u2013 including for the controversial 2022 World Cup \u2013 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.<\/p>\n
Most of Allan\u2019s past colleagues describe him as charming and collegiate \u2013 although he will be well on the right of the party. Steve Richards, the former Labour adviser, recalled Allan\u2019s No 10 leaving do 20 years ago where Blair teased he was \u201ceven more rightwing than me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Said to have been Starmer\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Along with Jones and Starmer\u2019s new private secretary, Daniel York-Smith, who comes from the Treasury, Starmer is clearly tooling up for big battles to come on the economy.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Prime minister\u2019s chief of staff<\/p>\n
McSweeney remains the most powerful member of the prime minister\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
McSweeney and his team \u2013 as well as Starmer himself \u2013 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.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Director of communications<\/p>\n
Driver has long been Starmer\u2019s most trusted adviser on communications and is well liked across all of Whitehall\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Driver, who never left Starmer\u2019s side during the election campaign and was responsible for briefing the prime minister, is still likely to remain the day-to-day communications frontline. \u201cAs far as the rest of government is concerned, Steph Driver will continue to lead comms,\u201d one adviser said.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Outgoing policy chief becoming senior counsel to the PM and director of strategic interventions<\/p>\n
Ingham is Starmer\u2019s longest serving adviser \u2013 having joined for his leadership bid and lead the party\u2019s policy team in opposition. He is extremely close to his boss and has survived numerous attempts to oust him by newcomers.<\/p>\n
He will move to the political team, headed by McSweeney, which also includes director of political strategy Paul Ovenden. \u201c Stuart will be freed from managing the team and will be advising him directly,\u201d one source said. \u201cKeir is keeping the people he trusts close.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
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\u2019s foreign policy adviser and a much needed experienced hand in the sometimes chaotic first year in power for Labour.<\/p>\n
Alakeson will take on the expanded and additional responsibilities for policy and delivery, alongside Nin Pandit who had been the prime minister\u2019s private secretary. However, a new policy unit director is expected to be appointed in the coming months.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Informal strategic adviser<\/p>\n
It had been long rumoured Starmer had hoped to appoint Lady Casey to a permanent role in his team \u2013 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.<\/p>\n
But instead she has taken on the brief of outlining a new social care system \u2013 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.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Darren Jones Chief secretary to the prime minister Keir Starmer has poached Reeves\u2019s 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\u2019s message and delivery, and take on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18568,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[2381,124,2311,1276,5564],"class_list":{"0":"post-18567","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-social-issues","8":"tag-downing","9":"tag-politics","10":"tag-shakeup","11":"tag-street","12":"tag-whos"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}