Every revolution has its victims and Jeremy Hunt’s counter-coup is no exception. The new Chancellor’s return to office has meant a clear out of Kwasi Kwarteng’s aides as the special adviser merry go-round continues at pace. The age of ministers being told to hire from a No 10 approved-list of nominees is over: Hunt instead prefers to rely for counsel on several long-time advisers.
One of his new spads is Christina Robinson, his press officer who ran his media communications when he was in the Cabinet. She has been papped by the press in recent days, escorting her boss around as he desperately tries to reassure the markets. Robinson previously ran the former Health Committee chair’s comms in a private capacity, having been a spad for him between 2012 to 2019. She also helped run both of Hunt’s 2019 and 2022 leadership campaigns.
Another key aide is perhaps more familiar to Westminster watchers. Adam Smith was forced to resign in 2012 as Hunt’s spad over the BskyB bid when the latter served as Culture Secretary after apparently speaking to News Corp without Hunt’s permission. He said at the time ‘I appreciate that my activities at times went too far and have, taken together, created the perception that News Corporation had too close a relationship with the department… it is only right for me to step down as special adviser to Jeremy Hunt.’
Smith though has quietly made a return to Hunt’s side, having been listed in the MPs’ register of staff since October 2019. The Telegraph reported that he was chief of staff for his old boss earlier this summer, just before Boris Johnson’s resignation. Like Hunt, Smith too is now returning to the heart of government: ‘the only Adam Smith you’ll see around here’ jokes one Treasury aide to Mr S.
There’s other signs of the old order reasserting itself too. Four economists have been named today by Hunt to his new Council of Economic Advisers. Out go Julian Jessop and Patrick Minford of the IEA: in come George Osborne’s Rupert Harrison and three alumni of the Bank of England. Trussonomics, we hardly knew ye…
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