Sir Keir Starmer will chair his first cabinet meeting of the parliamentary term today, after a major shake-up to his Downing Street team ahead of a defining period for the government.
After a summer of unrest over asylum hotels, speculation about tax rises in the autumn budget, and record low polling numbers, the prime minister will head up talks with Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Deputy PM Angela Rayner and other senior ministers.
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It follows a shake-up of Sir Keir’s Downing Street team, headlined by Labour MP Darren Jones moved from the Treasury to Number 10 to oversee the day-to-day delivery of the prime minister’s priorities.
He spent the last year as the chief secretary to the Treasury – essentially Ms Reeves’s deputy. That role will now be taken by James Murray, who was previously the exchequer secretary.
Read more: Starmer’s ‘Mr Fixit’ is likely to be a recipe for conflict
Starmer: This is a new phase
Sir Keir marked the shake-up with a social media video on Monday, which declared “phase two of my government starts today”.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, he said he understood the public’s “frustration” – but insisted the first year of his government had been about “fixing the foundations”. He said it will now go “further and faster” to deliver change.
Reports suggest the shake-up has been done with an eye on the autumn budget. Last year’s, the first by a Labour chancellor for well over a decade, was met with significant backlash – notably over the increase in national insurance contributions for employers.
Ms Reeves had already been criticised for her controversial decision to cut the winter fuel allowance for millions of pensioners, which was later reversed.
One source told The i there had been frustration over Ms Reeves’s performance, saying she “made mistakes and Keir got blamed”, while a Labour MP told The Daily…
