What does May’s promotion mean for the welfare reform agenda?

For me, this reshuffle is blemished by the puzzling decision to make Theresa May shadow work and pensions secretary. Welfare reform is, by some margin, the toughest task in politics. If Cameron was genuinely planning to go through with it, he’d realise it would be his single most important departmental appointment. You’re talking about liberating millions of people from welfare dependency. You need someone with the knowledge and energy to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the system – as Milburn did on health and Adonis on city academies. It requires the most energetic, most aggressive and determined member of his team.

That’s why Chris Grayling was such a good hire. He immersed himself in it, met the people, read the studies, did the grunt work himself. If he was to be replaced, why not by Nick Herbert – who has a genuine passion for the task of government reform? As co-founder of the excellent Reform think tank, he would be ideally suited to transforming the DWP.