Prime Minister Keir Starmer ordered a government reshuffle that replaces personnel and frames the move as a reset to sharpen focus toward long-term reshuffling. Darren Jones moved from chief secretary to the Treasury into a new role as chief secretary to the prime minister, portrayed internally as a fixer but seen by colleagues as divisive. Critics note a weak legislative record and frequent policy reversals, arguing that Starmer often relents on staff and policy. Communication roles are unstable, and messaging toggles between slogans such as 'delivering growth people can feel in their pockets' and blunt directives like 'just fucking do it.'
If I hear one more of our people saying that deckchairs are being shuffled on the Titanic, a government supporter of Keir Starmer confided to the Daily Mail, I will scream. No need for shrieks. The prime minister's No 10 hokey cokey on Monday wasn't so much shuffling the deckchairs as restructuring the deck crew and announcing that some fresh faces will enable the team to work with new focus towards their ultimate goal of reshuffling.
For now, hold on to your aperitifs and continue to dress for dinner, because the erstwhile chief secretary to the Treasury, Darren Jones, becomes something called chief secretary to the prime minister. To Starmer, Darren is a Mr Fixit; to many of his cabinet colleagues, he is a Mr Fuxit. That's not the official line Downing Steet is going with, preferring instead to claim that yet another reset means Starmer is focused on relentless delivery. Delivery of what?
All he ever does is relent, on both staff and policy. The role of his comms chief, for example, is now essentially a gig economy job, while doing a monthly U-turn is the only thing he hasn't U-turned on. We are watching a movie in which it's not clear what the main character wants. Unsurprisingly, it has turned out to be box-office poison.
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