Amid the Mandelson blow up, discussions are underway in Downing Street with regard to Starmer’s political future. Including a reshuffle post-May elections…
The aim is to placate the Parliamentary Labour Party/soft left. No10 insiders are pricing in an attempt to bring Angela Rayner back into the fold to help on that. Starmer extended an olive branch in public on Monday. Two things could stymie that attempt: the timeline of HMRC’s investigation into her tax affairs, and her actual willingness to take on the job. As Guido’s Labour Wars column pointed out on Monday, Rayner will need to know that she has a secure post-Starmer future before heading back in…
Faith held in the new Labour backbench intake, comparatively large numbers of whom were promoted into government in 2024, has fallen away. Older intakes have never been rated highly by Starmer’s operation. That leaves one clear option – recruit more from outside. A Downing Street source says moves to “refresh or add a few more lords like Patrick Vallance” who can “get stuff done” are being discussed. A shake-up could also attempt to resolve issues in the Cabinet Office like moving the top team along or even removing the Cabinet Secretary himself…
There is gossip too about Cabinet moves. Spin the wheel…
Discussions are underway about moving David Lammy on from the MoJ. One senior government source tells Guido he is “singularly unable to grip the MoJ and won’t deal with a very poor top team of officials.” A SpAd clearout under Lammy is ongoing – longtimer Ben Judah is gone and there were discussions about other senior exits. Sources close to the Justice Secretary speculate that Lammy could simply retain the DPM role. His love of luxury trappings and foreign travel is a running joke in Whitehall…
There are whispers now at the heart of SW1 about the huge red lever labelled ‘eject Rachel Reeves.’ It would be seismic…
Spin from both the Treasury and Downing Street in the run up to the last Budget sought to tie Starmer and Reeves’ fates together. Now the Budget is a few stops back – tempora mutantur…
A Downing Street source tells Guido there is “increasing speculation that Reeves has become moveable now we’ve gone beyond the Budget.” Another senior Labour source said: “Who has the PLP blamed most frequently for the shambles so far? Reeves.” A third government source added that the Chancellor is diminished – her absence from the China trip is a hot topic in SW1 – and increasingly battered by No10 on major policy fights. Think, farming, business rates, and about ten others in the last six months…
More difficult is trying to demote or sack Miliband, who would cause far too much trouble. Downing Street has long speculated that Ed fancies himself a go with the red box…
Shadow national security minister Alicia Kearns told Times Radio she would have put a precondition on a China trip if she were PM:
“I would have put a precondition that I was not going to go if I was prime minister, unless Jimmy Lai was coming home with me. I would also put a precondition in the six months leading up to the visit that I wanted a reduction in hostile acts against our country. But that’s not what we saw. And actually, in contrast, what we saw was clearly the Chinese Communist Party did put a precondition, which was that the new embassy in London had to be signed off. So why is it okay for China to set preconditions and to make very clear red lines about what they require for a visit, but we go without having put any ourselves?”