Musical chairs at Number 10

On the first day back from summer recess, Starmer has announced a shuffle of his staff at 10 Downing Street. The hope is that new recruits and new roles will create a sense of political momentum and direction.

The Prime Minister has created two new economic positions; Darren Jones, who was Rachel Reeves’ deputy will now be the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister and oversee the delivery of the Prime Minister’s priorities. The title is new but the ambition is familiar. To get a grip of government. 

Baroness Minouche Shafik, who was a former deputy governor of the Bank of England, will now be the prime minister's new chief economic adviser. She’s believed to favour increasing the burden on the wealthy in the budget, particularly with regards to tax and pension rules.   

But that’s not all. There are also changes to the communications and policy teams, to streamline and clarify organisational structures. Tim Allan, a figure from the Blair era, has been appointed as executive director of communications, Dan York-Smith is the Prime Minister’s new principal private secretary, while long term Starmer aide and deputy chief of staff to the PM Vidhya Alakeson has also been promoted to oversee policy and delivery. The message from Downing Street is that should not be seen as a shuffle in response to a crisis, instead he explained that this is part of a planned transition to ‘phase 2’ of his government which is now moving away from building foundations and into delivery. 

Yet the Chancellor Rachel Reeves is under pressure to fill a hole in the public finances in this Autumn’s budget. There’s plenty of media speculation that she is running out of time and  losing the confidence of the public, her party and the Prime Minister. 

There have been policy mishaps at the Treasury, including proposed changes to winter fuel payments and welfare cuts which were deeply unpopular and had to be reversed. With inflation still high and potential tax rises in the autumn budget coming soon, economic issues are front and centre.

The question is, will this reshuffle  do the trick? After only a year, this will now be the fourth chief of staff and fifth director of communications. Continually swapping out the senior staff is an easy solution, but rarely the right one. 

 The big electoral issue of course is Reform’s success over the spring and summer, gaining seats in the local elections and continuing to rise in the polls and dominate the press. After 14 years of conservative government, Labour won a big parliamentary  majority, but after just a year in office, they already appear to be suffering from a sense of malaise and political drift. 

In order to deliver the campaign promises, fix the economy and win back the hearts and minds of voters, it seems likely that  more than this shuffle of personnel is needed.