Liz Kendall deserves her promotion

Keir Starmer has carried out a shadow cabinet reshuffle today that suggests he is confident about his authority over the Labour party, and that he is also genuinely keen to be a reforming prime minister. Giving so many key policy and campaigning jobs to centrist types will please those who have been pushing him to be less cautious. Unlike Fraser, I think Liz Kendall replacing Jon Ashworth in the work and pensions brief is an excellent example of the Labour leader being enthusiastic about reform. Ashworth is, as his appearances in The Spectator recently have shown, a very thoughtful and forward-thinking politician. He hasn’t been afraid to take on important arguments about welfare reform that were once the preserve of the right. But he is also a soft left politician, whose would tend to pull punches or make strategic retreats in order to placate upset Labour activists. He also leaned heavily on the policy work of more centrist colleagues.