Keir Starmer sidelined Rachel Reeves as he strengthened his hold on economic policy through a significant reorganisation of the government.
The Prime Minister recruited the Chancellor’s deputy and senior tax adviser to join his staff, and he appointed his own economic expert as a sign that he intends to oversee the autumn budget personally.
The move is designed to stop the PM being ‘blindsided’ by the Treasury again after U-turns over winter fuel payments and benefit cuts, which helped to drive Labour’s poll ratings to record lows.
But the Tories accused Sir Keir of appointing a string of ‘tax fanatics’ to advise him as Labour tries to plug a black hole of up to £50 billion in public finances.
Downing Street insisted the PM and Ms Reeves will continue to work ‘in lockstep’.
This week, the Chancellor will attempt to gain the upper hand by claiming that the secret to economic development is increasing Britain’s declining productivity through investment and training.
But Sir Keir’s decision to establish his own economic team brings to an end his earlier approach of subcontracting economic policy to Ms Reeves.
Former Tory cabinet minister Sir James Cleverly suggested the changes signal that the PM is ‘getting ready to throw Rachel under the bus in the proper reshuffle that is inevitably coming’.
Conservative business spokesman Andrew Griffith said: ‘A stronger Prime Minister would have gone the whole hog and fired [Ms Reeves], not just created his own shadow chancellor.’
It comes as Sir Keir is said to have appointed Darren Jones, former Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Baroness Shafik, former Bank of England deputy governor, and Dan-York-Smith from the Treasury to help shape the Chancellor’s upcoming autumn budget, according to The Telegraph.
But a Labour MP insisted that the decision is bound to erode Reeves’ authority, telling the publication that it signifies she is already ‘in a weak position and it’s deteriorating.’
Sir Keir insisted the changes were not another reset but marked the Government moving into its ‘second phase’, which would focus on ‘delivery, delivery, delivery’.
Asked if it was a reflection of frustration that he had not brought about the change he had promised, he told the BBC: ‘I do want to go further and faster, and yes, I’m frustrated about that.’
His Svengali-like chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, was also seen entering No 10. He masterminded Labour’s election victory but has been criticised for the party’s handling of its recent problems.
Economist Paul Johnson, former head of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, told Times Radio: ‘It’s extraordinary, more than a year into this Government, they’re only just working out that they might need some senior economic expertise within No 10, both at a political level and at the adviser level.’
Former Bank of England deputy governor and economist Minouche Shafik will assume a new role as the prime minister’s chief economic adviser.
In the past, she and Treasury Minister Torsten Bell co-chaired an investigation that recommended numerous new tax increases.
She has supported wealth taxes in the past, writing in 2018: ‘Because wealth has grown even more unequal than income, we should explore taxing wealth such as inheritance, land, and real estate.’
Recently appointed Treasury minister Dan Tomlinson has also made the case for a wealth tax and for a higher capital gains tax, saying in 2022: ‘Our tax system is unfair to most working people, leaving those who pay capital gains and other taxes paying less.’
The Tories described Mr Tomlinson, who has opposed cuts to fuel duty, as a ‘tax fanatic’.
Former Treasury chief secretary Darren Jones, who has emerged as the big winner from the reshuffle, will now serve in a newly created role of Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, responsible for driving delivery of the PM’s priorities across government.
Mr Jones was captured on tape before the last election, making the case for higher council tax on valuable properties and arguing the need for inheritance tax to ‘ease intergenerational inequality’.
His successor as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, James Murray, has likewise advocated for a wealth tax.
Sir Keir has appointed a third new communications chief in a year – bringing back Blair-era spin doctor Tim Allan, a former sidekick of Alastair Campbell.
All they are really doing is arranging the deck chairs, like on the Titanic, and they’re sinking fast – crikey – iceberge ahead!
Rachel Reeves is inept, but Starmer is worse. The kind of people he has appointed to advise him on the economy speaks volumes about Labour’s distaste for hard-working taxpayers. Now there is no motivation to work or thrive because you just can’t leave that legacy to your family anymore.
They should all be sacked because they have cost the economy billions of pounds plus. Killed off thousands of pensioners. Forced the highest taxes onto us and regularly demonstrated that this is not the UK we once knew.
It doesn’t pay to work in this day and age.
Keir Starmer needs to realise that he can reshuffle his cabinet as much as he likes, but if you shake a barrel full of rotten apples, you’re still left with a barrel of rotten apples.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 