The prime minister has moved to get a grip on the political agenda after a torrid year and also sacked his director of communications
With concerns over the focus of the Downing Street operation, Labour languishing eight points behind Reform in the polls and a sense that the prime minister is not in control of the political agenda, Darren Jones has been moved to help strengthen the operation.
Mr Jones is replaced as chief Treasury secretary by loyalist James Murray and Daniel Tomlinson, who only became an MP last year, is promoted to a junior Treasury ministerial role.
But the biggest casualty is James Lyons, brought in just a year ago to run strategic communications, who has now been shown the door.
Mr Lyons is the second major Downing Street departure announced in just a week with Nin Pandit, Starmer’s principal private secretary, also set to leave.
Mr Lyons told colleagues: “It was an honour to be asked to come in. I’m proud to have helped to get a grip on Whitehall comms after what was a difficult few first months for the government.
“But I gave up a lot to come in and this was never intended as a long haul. When I came back from the summer break I told colleagues I was looking to leave by the end of the year. I’ve brought this forward to be part of the other changes.”
These latest moves follow criticism of a lack of direction and focus with the Downing Street operation as well as a failure to properly engage Labour backbench MPs especially during the humiliating welfare rebellion just before the summer break.
Mr Jones’ arrival in Downing Street is aimed at bringing new political leadership to the central operation and will also give the prime minister more of an insight into the workings of the Treasury.
The Chief Secretary role is a new appointment which will work collaboratively across UK government to drive forward progress in key policy areas, reporting directly to the prime minister.
The ministerial role, based within No 10, will directly oversee work across government to support the delivery of the prime minister’s priorities.
Sir Keir has also directly appointed Baroness Shafik as his chief economic advisor to support the prime minister on economic affairs in another sign that he wants a more hands on approach to economic policy rather than leaving it to his chancellor.
This role and the additional expertise will support the government to go further and faster in driving economic growth and raising living standards for all.
Baroness (Minouche) Shafik is a world leading economist, whose career has straddled public policy and academia. She served as the permanent secretary of the UK’s Department for International Development and deputy governor of the Bank of England, where she sat on the monetary, financial and prudential policy committees.
However, former director of the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) Paul Johnson gave a scathing assessment about what the reshuffle said about the government.
Speaking to Hugo Rifkind on Times Radio, he said: “It’s extraordinary, more than a year into this government, they’re only just working out that they might need some senior economic expertise within Number 10, both at a political level and at the advisor level.