Keir Starmer’s government is not in chaos, the prime minister’s new chief secretary, Darren Jones, has said after an emergency reshuffle triggered by Angela Rayner’s resignation as deputy prime minister.
The cabinet reshuffle, which had been planned for later in the autumn, was brought forward by Starmer in an attempt to assert control after Rayner was forced to step down from all three of her roles, having been found to have breached the ministerial code over her tax arrangements.
Asked whether the public should see the flurry of ministerial changes as instability, just a week into the new parliamentary session and barely days after Starmer announced he had started “phase two” of his premiership, Jones told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the reshuffle was actually a show of leadership.
“No, this is not chaos,” he said. “This reshuffle was accelerated ahead of what [Starmer] had wanted to do. That’s not chaos, that’s leadership. He acted in the moment and decided to get on with it.”
When he was pressed on whether the public would see the Labour government as chaotic, he said: “I just don’t accept the definition of chaos.
“Of course, we would rather Angela had not been in that position, but she was, the process happened. The process happened quite quickly as well if you think about the point at which Angela referred herself to the ethics adviser, the point at which she gave the advice, and the prime minister acting within a matter of hours off the back of that advice.
“And as I say, the prime minister had been planning a broader reshuffle on a slower timetable, but he brought that forward because that is his decision as prime minister; that’s exhibiting leadership and control, not chaos.”
Starmer had stood by Rayner for the entire week as questions were repeatedly raised about the underpayment of stamp duty on her £800,000 seaside flat.
The senior MP who was put in charge of day-to-day delivery of the prime minister’s priorities earlier this week was also pressed on whether the reshuffle was a case of simply moving the same faces around the table rather than No 10 using the moment to inject fresh talent.
He defended the changes, noting Emma Reynolds had been promoted to environment secretary. “You’re right, that we have moved people around the table, but that’s because after our first year in government we’ve been able to exhibit our strengths and skill sets.”
Yvette Cooper has been moved from the Home Office to the Foreign Office, which Jones rejected had been the case because of poor performance.
Cooper was replaced at the Home Office by Shabana Mahmood, meaning that three of the four great offices of state are, for the first time, held by women. David Lammy moved to the justice department and will also become deputy prime minister.
Lord Faulkner, a Labour peer and former justice secretary, said the size of the reshuffle indicated that Starmer was “aware of the fact that there is a big problem and that you need to re-engage with the public, and give an electric shock to the government, signalling to the public that there has to be change”.
