Sir Keir Starmer has announced a shake-up of his team in Downing Street as he seeks to reset his premiership after a difficult first year in office.
Darren Jones, seen as a rising star within the Labour Party, has been moved to Number 10 to oversee the day-to-day delivery of the prime minister’s priorities.
He has spent the last year as the chief secretary to the Treasury – essentially Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s deputy – but that role will now be taken by James Murray, who was previously the exchequer secretary.
Mr Murray will be replaced by Dan Tomlinson, a new MP from the 2024 intake who was the government’s “growth mission champion”.
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Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, Sir Keir said the changes were not a reshuffle but a transition “to the second phase” of his government.
“We spent the first year sort of fixing the foundations, if you like, doing the hard yards,” he said.
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“But we are now into sort of phase two of the government, which is where we focus on delivery, delivery, delivery and start to show what a difference a Labour government really makes.”
He added that he was not “angry” about the pace of change his government had managed, but said he was “frustrated”.
“I get the frustration and anger of voters because they want change,” he said, vowing to go “further and faster”.
In a video posted later on the prime minister’s X account, Sir Keir said he had gathered the new team in Number 10 this morning to discuss what phase two of the government “will look like and feel like”.
The reset comes after a summer marred by negative headlines on immigration and Channel crossings.
Labour is languishing behind Reform UK in the polls after a difficult first year in which they also faced a backlash over the cut to winter fuel payments and planned benefit reforms.
Labour backbenchers have criticised Number 10 for not engaging with their concerns and having a poor communications strategy.
Luke Akehurst, the Labour MP for North Durham, welcomed today’s shakeup, telling Sky News: “Darren Jones is a very effective minister and great communicator so it’s a welcome move to see him brought into Number 10 and helping to drive positive change across government.”
Mr Jones’s official new title is chief secretary to the prime minister, and he will respond directly to Sir Keir while continuing to attend cabinet.
He was elected as the Bristol North-West MP in 2017 and rose to prominence a few years later as chair of the business select committee, when he made a name for himself holding business leaders to account.
Mr Jones has previously described Tony Blair as his political hero and is understood to have privately urged the government to be more radical.
In its announcement of the changes on Monday morning, Downing Street said it would “bolster” its operations to mark a new term in parliament, with MPs returning from the summer recess today.
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Other new appointments include economist Baroness Minouche Shafik, who will be the prime minister’s chief economic adviser.
The Labour peer is a British-American economist and academic who has previously served as the president and vice chancellor of the London School of Economics (LSE), and as the president of Columbia University.
Tim Allan, who was an adviser to Blair from 1992 to 1998, has been appointed as the government’s Executive Director of Communications and will work with existing director of communications, Steph Driver
James Lyons, who had been director of strategic communications within No 10, has left his role after a year, saying that it was “never intended as a long haul”.
The prime minister’s deputy chief of staff Vidhya Alakeson will take on the expanded responsibilities of overall oversight of Policy and Delivery within Downing Street.
Daniel York-Smith has been appointed as the prime minister’s principal private secretary (PPS), a senior civil servant position that was previously held by Nin Pandit.
Ms Pandit departed last week but remains in Downing Street and will lead a “newly reformed” delivery team, Number 10 said.
There had been speculation that junior ministers would also face a reshuffle once MPs returned from their summer recess but government insiders have said no such changes will take place, at least in the first week of September.
Kevin Hollinrake, the Conservative Party chairman, said the “chaotic” reshuffle “shows a Downing Street in crisis – totally distracted from fixing the damage they’ve done to the economy, jobs and small businesses”.
“It’s like firefighters arguing about the hose whilst the house burns down,” he added.
