\n<\/p>\n
Keir Starmer has attempted to wrest back control of economic policy from the Treasury by bolstering his No 10 team, bringing in the chancellor\u2019s deputy and a former Bank of England chief to senior roles.<\/p>\n
Before what is likely to be a tumultuous autumn for the government, he created two new roles with Darren Jones put in charge of day-to-day delivery and Minouche Shafik appointed the prime minister\u2019s chief economic adviser.<\/p>\n
Downing Street sources said the changes showed Starmer recognised his operation needed more economic heft to challenge Treasury thinking and avoid damaging pitfalls such as those over winter fuel payments and welfare cuts.<\/p>\n
As MPs returned to Westminster after a difficult summer, during which Reform UK dominated the news agenda and soared ahead in the polls, Starmer wants to get on the front foot on issues including the economy and migration.<\/p>\n
His internal No 10 reshuffle, which also covered the communications team and the policy unit, comes alongside a new economic pledge to deliver growth that \u201cpeople can feel in their pockets\u201d, a nod to the millions who are still struggling with the cost of living.<\/p>\n
The extent of the shake-up reflects the sense that Starmer\u2019s No 10 has increasingly struggled to impose its own narrative, and is instead mainly being shaken by external crises, notably the focus over the summer on migration, and Reform UK\u2019s planned response to it.<\/p>\n
Things are unlikely to improve in the short term, with the return of parliament presenting the prime minister and his team with a series of tough challenges, including the likely need for tax rises in this autumn\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n
Starmer rejected the idea the changes were prompted by crisis, arguing it was more a case of a new phase of government. \u201cThis should be seen more as moving on to the second phase than a reshuffle, because some of the positions are actually new positions,\u201d he told the BBC.<\/p>\n
Downing Street insiders acknowledged the changes were designed to give Starmer greater control over Whitehall, including of the Treasury, with No 10 evolving into a \u201ccommand and control\u201d operation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere have been things we should have seen coming where the chain of command and oversight were not what we wanted. This is Keir saying he wants to have a direct line of sight to everything. Darren knows the departments inside out because of the spending review,\u201d one said.<\/p>\n
\u201cKeir has been thinking about how to fix things for the last couple of months and these are his appointments and this is his structure. There are decisions that were made in the Treasury \u2013 winter fuel being one of them \u2013 where No 10 did not take enough oversight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another senior No 10 source said: \u201cThese are not people who have been appointed to be at odds with the Treasury or alternative power bases but to work with it. The economic agenda has to be aligned. But of course the PM needs to be able to shape it. Downing Street has to be able to challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
A senior government insider denied the changes risked undermining Reeves\u2019s position, saying she had been involved in discussions on them since earlier in the summer. \u201cThat is an analysis based on prime ministers and chancellors of the past \u2013 Blair and Brown, May and Hammond \u2013 when in fact these appointments make the Treasury\u2019s job easier,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
Jones, whose new title will be chief secretary to the prime minster, will be replaced as Rachel Reeves\u2019s deputy by James Murray, who has been promoted from exchequer secretary. In turn, his role will be taken by Dan Tomlinson, the government\u2019s \u201cgrowth mission champion\u201d, as Starmer seeks to reward the new 2024 intake.<\/p>\n
However, there is not expected to be a wider reshuffle of the junior ministerial ranks this week, senior sources said, and cabinet ministers will stay in their current roles.<\/p>\n
The communications operation will also be shaken up with Tim Allan, an adviser to Tony Blair in No 10 who went on to fund the PR firm Portland, coming in as executive director of government communications.<\/p>\n
His appointment has caused some alarm in government, as he did some work for Russian president Vladimir Putin in the early noughties to reshape his own image in the eyes of the west ahead of hosting the G8 summit that year. \u201cI can\u2019t wait for the Tories to start looking at Portland\u2019s lobbying for the Russian government,\u201d one Labour source said.<\/p>\n
The political role is separate from that of David Dinsmore, a former editor of the Sun who has been tasked with improving the civil service communications operation. There have been questions internally over whether either man is up to speed with the modern media landscape.<\/p>\n
James Lyons, Downing Street\u2019s director of communications for strategy, is stepping down. Steph Driver, his counterpart for day-to-day No 10 communications, who is close to Starmer, stays in post, answering to Allan. Joe Dancey, the Labour party\u2019s director of policy and communications, and partner of the health secretary Wes Streeting, has also left his role.<\/p>\n
The No 10 policy unit is also undergoing changes, after some internal conflict over who was running the department. Liz Lloyd, who was Tony Blair\u2019s deputy chief of staff at No 10, is leaving but is expected to move to a new role in government.<\/p>\n
Stuart Ingham, another policy chief and Starmer\u2019s most longstanding aide, will leave the unit to work in chief of staff Morgan McSweeney\u2019s team, taking on a more political role, which sources said would ensure the prime minister\u2019s priorities were taken into account in every decision.<\/p>\n
A new political policy chief is expected to be appointed shortly, but in the meantime Vidhya Alakeson, one of McSweeney\u2019s deputies, will oversee day-to-day policy work.<\/p>\n
However, there was some concern among Labour MPs that the changes may not fix fundamental problems at the top of government. The latest appointments mean that since Starmer became Labour leader, he has had four chiefs of staff and five directors of communications.<\/p>\n
One Labour backbencher said: \u201cOverall I think it is not something you can staff your way out of. This is about the politics and the story we tell. All the comms and strategy people in the world won\u2019t fix that.\u201d<\/p>\n
A senior Labour source added: \u201cIt\u2019s not just a question of narrative. It\u2019s \u2018what is our purpose and how do we use power?\u2019 The stakes are a shift to radical right authoritarian government. As progressives that\u2019s an emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his BBC interview, Starmer said while he understood people\u2019s concerns about migration, Reform and Nigel Farage were exploiting the issue. \u201cThey feed on grievance. They don\u2019t want the problem solved because they\u2019ve got no reason to exist if the problems are solved,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
When asked about a recent spate of English flags being draped on lamp-posts or spray-painted on roundabouts, the prime minister said he was proud of the flag, and had one in his Downing Street flat, but was wary of it being used for \u201cdivisive\u201d reasons.<\/p>\n
Mujtaba Rahman, of political analysts Eurasia Group, said: \u201cKeir Starmer\u2019s reshuffle of his Downing Street team reflects his frustration at what he sees as a bloated but slow civil service machine and a desire to bolster No 10\u2019s heft on the economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is a belated recognition that Starmer delegated too much power to Rachel Reeves, whose political judgment was lacking on means-testing the pensioners\u2019 winter fuel allowance and welfare cuts \u2013 both later abandoned.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Keir Starmer has attempted to wrest back control of economic policy from the Treasury by bolstering his No 10 team, bringing in the chancellor\u2019s deputy and a former Bank of England chief to senior roles. Before what is likely to be a tumultuous autumn for the government, he created two new roles with Darren Jones<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[97,1346,328,2184,2311,1347,3111,11370],"class_list":{"0":"post-18599","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-control","9":"tag-keir","10":"tag-policy","11":"tag-seeks","12":"tag-shakeup","13":"tag-starmer","14":"tag-treasury","15":"tag-wrest"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18599","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=18599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}