Dan York-Smith, a former senior Treasury official and qualified international gymnastics judge, has been appointed principal private secretary. The government faces the task of raising taxes while inflation rises and the public endures a cost-of-living crisis. Starmer recruited Darren Jones as chief secretary and appointed Minouche Shafik as economic adviser to strengthen economic direction. Economists and former advisers welcomed the reshuffle as a move to ensure No 10 provides political challenge to the Treasury. Critics argue the Treasury can be predisposed to economically counterproductive choices without pushback from the prime minister's office.
As well as York-Smith, who previously coordinated fiscal events at the Treasury and is well liked by colleagues across Whitehall, Starmer has pinched Reeves's No 2, Darren Jones, to be his own chief secretary a previously nonexistent job. The former Bank of England deputy governor Minouche Shafik, a well-respected economist, will be Starmer's economic adviser. Economists and former government advisers welcomed the reshuffle, suggesting it was high time for Starmer to take more interest in the direction of economic policy.
It is a well-functioning department staffed by people who know what they're talking about and if it's not politically challenged by No 10 things go wrong, he said. Because of the way the Treasury works, it's intellectually predisposed to do things that are not just politically counterproductive but economically counterproductive. You need somebody in No 10 to push back, and that's in the interests of the government as a whole.
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