Sue Cameron’s notebook in the FT is a treasure trove of mini-scoops; few journalists are anywhere near as well connected in Whitehall—as opposed to Westminster—as she is. Today’s is no exception. Cameron reports that ‘Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, has let it be known he wants to jump ship to the Foreign Office’.
Moving Mandelson to the Foreign Office is really the only obvious way out of the Royal Mail mess for Brown. But who will replace Mandelson at Business? I had heard that Alan Johnson was favoured, he is ideally suited to dealing with the Mail issue and it would put one of the government’s best media performers in a recession-connected brief, but Cameron says it might well be Balls.
Apparently, Balls is going to be moved out of the Department for Children, Schools and Families. This is, presumably, for his own protection given the absolute horlicks of the job he has made and how badly he has been run ragged by his Tory shadow, Michael Gove.
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