Rishi Sunak this morning embarked on a minor reshuffle of his cabinet as he restructures several Whitehall departments. Today’s cabinet meeting has been pushed back from this morning to mid-afternoon so as to allow for the changes to take place. In a sign of Sunak’s reluctance to ruffle feathers among Tory MPs, no sackings took place. Instead the focus was on rearranging government departments and then matching them largely with serving ministers.
This could make the government run more efficiently and help Sunak point to delivery by the next election
The most pressing matter, however, was the vacancy of party chairman after Sunak removed Zahawi from his cabinet over his tax affairs after an independent adviser found he had failed to declare the details of the HMRC investigation he was subject to. Rather than a firebrand candidate such as Priti Patel or Kemi Badenoch, Sunak has appointed Greg Hands as the new party chairman.
Hands is a trusted and well-liked colleague with many years worth of ministerial experience. Liz Truss brought Hands in during her time in government after Conor Burns left his role – with her No. 10 operation suggesting that he was a ‘critical but supportive friend’. Sunak may find the same. The appointment is notably risk averse – Hands has been around long enough that it is unlikely he is about to be engulfed in scandal on news of his promotion. He faces the unenviable task of preparing the Tory party machine for a difficult set of local elections.
The part of the reshuffle that Sunak is most interested in, however, relates to the shake-up of government departments. This is an exercise that can take up a lot of time and energy. It means that to do so 18 months from an election could lead to criticism that it is a distraction from other more pressing issues. However, Sunak wants to use it to reflect his priorities including science and technology.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has been broken up to create a special energy department titled ‘Energy Security and Net Zero’. This will be led by former business secretary Grant Shapps. This department has been ‘tasked with securing our long-term energy supply, bringing down bills and halving inflation’.
Next up, there is a new science ministry titled the ‘Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’ which will be led by former culture secretary Michelle Donelan. The purpose of the new department is to ‘drive the innovation that will deliver improved public services, create new and better-paid jobs and grow the economy’. It also reflects Sunak’s personal ambition for his premiership to focus on science and innovation.
The Department for International Trade merges with the business part of BEIS. Kemi Badenoch takes on the new business brief on top of her current role running trade. Her new title is Secretary of State for Business and Trade. Finally, DCMS becomes CMS – the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. This will be led by new culture secretary Lucy Frazer.
What difference will all this make? It could make the government run more efficiently and thereby help Sunak point to delivery by the time of the next election. But in the immediate term, change can also lead to complaints. There are several ministers who felt taken aback by the reports overnight in the media and officials who question whether this is really a good use of everyone’s time.
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