The focus is on Downing Street personnel instead of ministers ahead of a reshuffle penned in for Monday, Guido is told. SpAds are braced for a Morgan McSweeney autumn clean out…
Multiple sources say Political Director Claire Reynolds is up for the chop. Guido hears that other Downing Street political staff are feeling nervy. Insider sources say numerous personnel in the Policy Unit as well as Director of Communications (Delivery) Steph Driver are privately worried about being shuffled on…
Guido hears the feeling among some political staff is that Nin Pandit’s departure – which has bolstered the hated pen-pusher Cabinet Secretary Chris Wormald – is not seen as enough. One Downing Street source tells Guido there are “no plans to tackle Wormald” and someone additional will be brought in – but that it “doesn’t seem likely that will be landed by Monday.”
With regard to that tongues are wagging in SW1 about the potential incoming appointment of Helen “Karaoke” MacNamara. Co-conspirators may remember MacNamara – former Propriety and Ethics director and subsequent deputy Cabinet Secretary. She has been personally pushing for the formation of a new Downing Street department with its own permanent secretary. A widely held view is that partygate has tarred her excessively. Guido hears Helen still has fans inside government…
The shuffle is being managed by numerous staff with competing recommendations to Starmer, hence the stop-and-start announcements. This is life with “the grown ups back in charge”…
UPDATE: Ministerial reshuffle delayed.
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You’re either in front of Guido, or you are behind…
Reeves’ former colleagues still in banking will not be thanking her today. Bank shares fell overnight after an IPPR report calling for a fresh tax on the interest banks get from the Bank of England coincided with an FT story on the sector expecting to be targeted by the Chancellor. Everyone is extremely jittery amid constant tax-hike briefings from the Treasury ahead of the Budget…
NatWest shares fell by 5.3%, Barclays 3.8%, and Lloyds Banking Group 5.2%. Lloyds has 2.2 million private shareholders including “most of our employees,” who number over 60,000. Reeves’ old bank has been part of Lloyds since 2009…
Reeves’ old HBOS colleagues who still work there and own shares in LBG will have seen the value of their shares take a hit thanks to the ideas of the so-called “economist” hitting the press early. Panicked pre-briefing to tank confidence prior to a tax-raising budget is certainly a strategy…
Reeves’ new address has changed from “HBOS Complaints team” to “11 Downing Street.” Former water cooler chums can direct their complaints there…
Red Wall Labour backbencher Jonathan Brash told GB News that Starmer should resign:
“I’m completely fed up about it, and I think it’s got to the point now where I genuinely think that, as far as the Prime Minister is concerned, it’s not a case of if, it’s when.”