Cabinet ministers are demanding a swift reshuffle of Keir Starmer’s Downing Street operation, which they say has failed to spot obvious political banana peels, suffered weeks of post-election infighting and failed to present a sufficiently positive narrative of Labour’s mission in government. .
Some senior figures in Starmer’s team want the prime minister to appoint former front-line defender Jonathan Ashworth, a regular and, many say, influential media performer during the general election campaign, to strengthen the team and give it a sharper political advantage.
In one of the shocks of election night, Ashworth was narrowly defeated by pro-Palestinian independent candidate Shockat Adam in South Leicester. The former MP now chairs the Starmerite think tank Labor Together. His former colleagues believe he is wasted there and Starmer should place him at the heart of the operation.
Calls are likely to intensify after Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield made a shocking statement on Saturday that she was resigning from the Labor Party and would sit as an independent. Duffield told the prime minister he was leaving his post because of “cruel and unnecessary” government policies such as cuts to the winter fuel allowance and the two-child benefit cap.
Frustration at No 10’s squandering of what many believed could and should have been a long political honeymoon was evident among ministers at all levels of government at the Labor Party conference in Liverpool last week.
Rather than being a celebration, the party has been dogged by falling ratings in the polls, discussions of “freebies” for the Prime Minister and others, stories of senior aides disagreeing and leaking negative information about each other, and few significant new policies or ideas.
Many senior ministers have said stories about freebies and infighting between the likes of Starmer’s chief of staff Sue Gray and cabinet secretary Simon Case should have been stopped or shut down sooner when they emerged. As it was, they had been allowed to gain momentum because so many senior figures were busy and briefing against each other as they sought to establish their own power bases after the election. Another cabinet source said: “We need to sort this out. It can be dealt with. But if we want to be seen as a service government, as we have said, it needs to be done as soon as possible.”
Newly elected Labor MPs looking forward to a welcome party of sorts in Liverpool summed up the atmosphere. “It’s so weird,” someone said. “Not exactly cheerful?” Asked if he was positive about the government’s chances of success in the next five years, another MP said: “I’m optimistic maybe 60%, nothing more.”
Since the conference ended Wednesday with a leadership defeat over controversial plans to cap winter fuel payments to retirees. Guard It has been revealed that Starmer was given another £16,000 worth of clothes by Labor Party member Waheed Alli before the general election.
For weeks, Starmer and his cabinet members, who have promised to put an end to Tory scum, have come under criticism for accepting gifts from Alli; these gifts included concerts and football in the Prime Minister’s case, as well as £2,400 for glasses and tens of thousands of pounds of clothes. tickets from other organizations.
Much of the trouble at Number 10 is being blamed by officials and ministers on the doorstep of Case, who is expected to leave his post in the new year. He and Gray (two of the officials with the most access to Starmer) are not on speaking terms, and some in the government suspect she is briefing against him. The BBC recently revealed he earns £170,000 a year; This is more than the Prime Minister.
“It’s completely crazy that we’re letting this Sue and Case thing go on,” a cabinet source said. “They don’t get along. We know this. Only two people know how much Sue Gray gets paid, and she’s one of them. It should be sent immediately.”
Another well-placed source said that a smooth transition of officials from opposition to government had not yet occurred with a clear enough distribution of roles. “There are people working on election campaigns and politics who come to number 10. “They’re all still in their own lane, but they’re changing direction everywhere.”
Stories circulated, including allegations that Gray had been involved in fights with Starmer’s chief aide Morgan McSweeney and that Gray had twice moved McSweeney’s desk away from the Prime Minister’s office, but were dismissed by insiders as “completely ridiculous, complete fiction”.
The response to stories about freebies has been slow and ineffective, a minister has said. “First we didn’t say anything, then we tried to defend, then we tried to say everything was fine, then we tried to say it wasn’t. “There was no queue for years.”
Ministers also say damaging stories, true or false, have been allowed to fill the policy vacuum, partly due to the timing of chancellor Rachel Reeves’ first budget on October 30 and the five-year spending review due next spring. Ministers say they want to put forward longer-term policy ideas but do not think they can do so without knowing what is in both documents.
A source said: “We can’t explain what we want to do because we’re in a weird no man’s land. But we could have found a few more fillers in the form of floating ideas and plans.”
The consensus within the government is that at least two or three more people with significant political and media experience should be appointed alongside communications director Matthew Doyle, who helped plan the landslide election victory, to spread the burden and strengthen the situation. operation.
“The problem is that to do this you have to come up with any plan to get over Sue and Matthew first,” the insider said.
“Keir is loyal to his people. He will be very angry with those who criticize the operation. But some things need to change.”