It’s all change in Sir Keir Starmer’s government. After his former deputy Angela Rayner resigned from both her government and party positions on Friday following an ethics probe into her tax affairs, the Prime Minister reshuffled his cabinet and his junior ministers. Those weren’t the only changes Starmer made, however – new appointments to the PM’s team at the start of last week saw Darren Jones MP move from the Treasury to No. 10. And even before that, the Prime Minister recruited another strategist in a bid to turn his government’s fortunes around after an, um, difficult first year in office.
But it wasn’t a match made in heaven, with new recruit Tom Kibasi (who helped Starmer win his 2020 leadership campaign) quitting the job after just two weeks in post. As reported by Bloomberg, eyebrows were raised when the former think tank chief was brought into the Downing Street team. Kibasi, who was formerly director of the Institute for Public Policy Research, has been heavily criticised in an internal report by the organisation over his management style. He was accused of having an ‘often aggressive communication style’ as well as being ‘physically angry’ on one occasion – and coming under fire from the IPPR management team and the staff union over his role in a company cash crisis. Dear oh dear…
Despite his move to No. 10 expected to last a few months, Kibasi will instead return to NHS England where he had been working since May. A Downing Street official told Bloomberg that Kibasi was working on a short-term project at No. 10 which has now finished, while the former think tanker told the publication that his time at IPPR had been subject to unfair allegations which he said he had reported to the police. Oo er.
The ex-IPPR director had been brought in to work on a strategy project with Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney in a move seen as part of a wider government reset to help the PM tackle plummeting polling figures. More appointments were made to the communications and policy teams in Downing Street last week as part of this effort, while Yvette Cooper aide Amy Richards has replaced Claire Reynolds as No. 10’s political director.
While a number of new MPs have been promoted in the various reshuffles that have taken place over the last few days, there are concerns about the elevation of a tight knit group of Starmer allies. As James Heale wrote on Sunday, McSweeney’s fingerprints are all over the changes – and the fact that the chief of staff’s wife, as well as both the husband and brother of Downing Street’s new political director, are in the whips office won’t reassure sceptical backbenchers. A week is a long time in politics…
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