Labour’s left-wards lurch continues. These moves are widely expected as of 15:00:

• Jim Murphy – Blairite – DEMOTED
• Stephen Twigg – Blarite – SACKED
• Liam Byrne – Blairite – SACKED

Len is getting his wish. Red Ed is purging the right-wingers from his Shadow Cabinet.

One Tory who will be nervously awaiting news of the junior ministerial reshuffle is Stephen Hammond. The Transport under-secretary received both barrels from his boss Patrick McLoughlin after telling a fringe event the government is still considering 80mph speed limits. Despite McLoughlin having ruled it out. The Secretary of State wasn’t the only one to vent his anger, Guido is told the PM got involved in the slap down. Going to be an awkward few days…

In boycotting the Open Golf Championship because it doesn’t allow women members, and then putting political pressure on the BBC to demand they take action against John “no looker” Inverdale, struggling Maria Miller has excelled herself this week. So much so that DCMS civil servants have nicknamed her Nicola Murray after the bungling minister from the Thick of It. Unfortunately for everyone who has to work with her, she will no doubt survive the reshuffle when it eventually happens. After all, as Malcolm Tucker put it to Nicola:

“Look, don’t worry. The PM is not going to sack you after a week. Sacked after twelve months, looks like you’ve f***ed up. Sacked after a week, looks like he’s f***ed up.”

Looks like Dave will have to wait to put her out of her misery.

Despite it being widely reported last week and over the weekend, Downing Street sources now say there will not be a reshuffle before the summer break. The idea of creating a new batch of disgruntled ex-ministers and letting them stew over a long hot summer did seem a little odd, yet their new claim that “it was never going to happen” should be taken with a lot of salt; especially given the imminent were being openly discussed by Tory staffers as late as last night at the PM’s media drinks party. That faint sound you can hear is Claire Perry gently sobbing…

With Cabinet moved to Thursday and the reshuffle expected to be complete by then, Dave was in full chillax mode last night enjoying a pint with his troops on the Commons terrace. With today being dominated by the NHS it would seem silly to distract from putting pressure on Burnham by beginning movements tonight. Most Tory sources are expecting calls to be made late Wednesday with the announcement made Thursday morning. Probably on Twitter like last time.  Not long to wait now, Claire…

The FT say Wednesday, Sky say otherwise , but the reshuffle speculation is reaching fever pitch before the summer break. A Downing Street source explains it well: “there are two very good rules with reshuffle speculation. 1. If you hear if from a journalist it is almost certainly b****ks. 2. If you hear from an MP it is undoubtedly b****ks, unless, in this case, that MP is called David and he lives in No.10.”  Bloggers, on the other hand…

Guido hears that, provided that the plan does not change, Claire Perry has less than a week to clear her desk – the mini-reshuffle is ‘pencilled in’ to the grid for Thursday 18 July. It may have been pencilled in, but with the hype growing it could well be brought forward.

You can read all of Guido’s speculation about the minor-movements from over the last few weeks here. There are no big changes expected, but plenty of deckchairs rearranged and deadwood shifted from the lower rungs of government. The ladies will do particularly well.