Yesterday's Sun and Telegraph carried two almost identical government reshuffle stories. Whenever I read these I look at who wrote them and who their sources might have been. In this case they were written by George Pascoe-Watson and Andrew Porter, two journalists with very long tentacles inside Number Ten. So I place a lot more credence on these reshuffle rumours than others.
The main stories are the demotion of both Jacqui Smith and Hazel Blears. Both journalists say that Alan Johnson is fighting any move for him to replace Jacqui Smith, and both tip Yvette Cooper for a promotion. Any suggestion that her husband, Ed Balls, might be the source of the story is, I am sure, totally inaccurate.Jacqui Smith's political reputation is shot. It would not surprise me at all if she left the government altogether. But Hazel Blears is a different matter. As I wrote a few days ago, she is not to be underestimated, and it wouldn't surprise me if she refused to move. That would present Gordon Brown with a problem. Could he really afford to a) lose her completely and b) lose two women from his team at the same time?
Andrew Porter tips David Miliband, John Denham, Jack Straw or Shaun Woodward to replace Jacqui Smith. Miliband would be very unwise to accept a sideways move to a department that is so prone to trouble. Denham would be a safe pair of hands, as would Straw. As for Shaun Woodward, well, best not go there.
What no one has so far addressed is the paucity of likely candidates for promotion from Minister of State level. McNulty? Not possible now. Caroline Flint? She's blotted her copybook with Brown and is seen as an ally of Blears. Have a look at the full list of ministers HERE. John Healy is about the only one I would think has what it takes. In addition, it's hard to see Brown bringing back Blunkett, Clarke, Byers or Milburn.
He's fast running out of options.
43 comments:
Margaret Beckett?
Save The Chipmunk !!!
The top of the Labour Party rather reminds me of Apprentice where everyone is backstabbing everyone else to get top job. In a proper run business these guys would not last two minutes. This political system needs to change.
http://www.plenty2say.com
To state the obvoius - might all this not be academic when the men in grey suits ( or white suits) come to take Gordon away on 7th June?
Good insight though
Its a tricky choice - all those lovely ladies make CF want to have a shuffle too.
Here's three of the pretty maids all in a row.
Which to choose, which to choose?
Maybe he'll bring back Kinnockio - after all, Voldemort's a retread from Brussels, why not another Labour Legend?
The Penguin.
Maybe he'll bring back Kinnockio? After all, he resurrected Lord Voldemort from his grave in Brussels, why not another Labour Legend?
The Penguin.
75.It has to be remebered that Jacqui Smith was Chief Whip in the near past! Surely she knows where all the bodies are buried. She could be harder to shift than outsiders think!
How on earth did she get the Home Secretary position in the first place? This is not to question whether she can do the day to day job but she is hardly a political totem normally associated with the job! I cannot think of one speech that she has made that could be remotley called inspiring!
Rather than been a Vanguard figure that seeks to crush criminal activity she is like a nurse made who wears outfits that make her look as though they have someones Bottom down her blouse.
I thought Hazel standing during PMQs (thus not sitting beside and thus in support of Brown) and her smug look spoke volumes.
Brown could easily find plenty of people to shuffle.
Try cardboard city at Waterloo, or some of the derelicts shuffling along the embankment.
Compared to the present lot, there is some real talent there, going to waste !
Alan Douglas
Surely that Cabinet Office Minister from Smeargate will have to go in the reshuffle - Tom Watson MP!
"John Healy is about the only one I would think has what it takes."
John Healy is a waste of oxygen - if this is the Government's main contender for SoS status then it's time to head for the Bunker...
There is only one man who can save Brown. One man that will make Brown look brilliant. One man who will bore the pants off everyone!
STEP FORWARD:_
Gavin Strang: He was elected Member of Parliament for Edinburgh East in June 1970. He is a full time MP and lives in Edinburgh with his family. Born in 1943, the son of a tenant farmer, he grew up in Perthshire. He studied at Edinburgh and Cambridge Universities and holds a BSc (hons) in Genetics (Edinburgh), a Diploma in Agricultural Science (Cambridge) and a Phd in Agricultural Science (Edinburgh). He worked as a scientist with the Agricultural Research Council, Animal Breeding Research Organisation in Edinburgh.
He fits the bill perfectly as he is Scottish and a DR!
or so it says on his webpage!
So little talent
We need to go FREE RANGE
Mike O'Brien?
Bored of Bloody Blears
Let's just have an election and save us all time speculating on what useless has beens/never have beens might get promoted/shifted/demoted. Labour are a complete irrelevance. Too much spin,trailing, deceit, lying, smearing and incompetence. The fantasy is over. It's time, and urgently so, for a new administration to get a grip on the country's finances.
Angela Eagle was impressive at the event at Number 11 last night held by the Women's Budget Group (experts on economic policy and gender).
(Sorry, it is not obvious if I am repeated;y failing the captcha.)
Maybe he will ennoble someone or go to the Lords for Ministerial recruits?
George Robertson would be a great person to bring into cabinet, but I'm not sure he'd want his reputation tarnished by Gordon's sinking ship or buy into Gordon's bully boy world.
Cant bring the Blairites back?...well he did with Mandelspoon so anythings possible.....especially if your desperate. Still the easy way out of any possible dilemma is just call a General Election.....
I like Hazzer - she has that cheeky speculative enthusiastic look that challenges men with the 'I know just how good I am, how good are you?' look - and I don't just mean intellectually. Pity that she's a lefty and talks bollocks. Mind you, given the opportunity, I still would.
Paul Goggins to get Woodward's job. He pretty much does it at the minute anyway.
Strapworld 9:49
I agree with it being Gavin Strang and such similar MPs. He is stepping down as MP and I can think of 303 others who should join him.
It is not Brown's cabinet that need changing as all Tory voters would wish Brown and his cabinet are intact just the way they are 2010. But it is Cameron's shadow cabinet that needs changes. After I listened to Chris Grayling's interview with Humphries on Radio 4, how I wished he was interviewing David Davies who is best suited to be shadow home secretary and unlike Grayling who is reactive and dismissive, Davies is proactive,puts clear arguments, sets the agenda and harasses the govt. I cannot understand why Cameron keeps him out. Osborne may be Cameron's friend but he is tainted with last year's episode, looks inexperienced and Phil Hammond is a better choice any day. Not clear why Spelman is still there.
The next election will be dirty and we will see plenty of mud-slinging. Cameron needs heavy weights around him as the poll lead is bound to shrink, and he needs convincing electors with policies and people that he is ready to step into No 10.
Gordon Brown will just make things worse by making more decisions. He should stop making decisions. He is danger to the public.
The cabinet should get together and just pick names out of a hat. They should stop "thinking" as well.
Davis is pro active to the point of running out on the shadow cabinet.
What was the point of that?
Woodward is supposed to be best mates with Brown. So watch this space. It would be quite fun to see brown promoting a toff.
Its also funny to see Labour complaining of Tory millionaires when they have Sainsbury Woodward and Myners in their ranks.
Limited indeed...
http://is.gd/xrJ7
Dismal is it not? Had no idea Strang was still there but now I see he is Chairman of the all-party parliamentary group for World Government! I just hope he pays his own way. As to Miss Smith how she can show her face in her Department or the HoC or in public is beyond wonderment. These people shameless – sod the porn and bath plug; calling her sister’s spare room her main home and financing her family home from taxpayer expenses is deception, normally a criminal offence.
I thought of Mike O'Brien, too. I've always thought his admission that he spoke to Peter Mandelson over Hindujagate stopped him getting to the cabinet; strange, but typical, that his career was more damaged by that than Mandelson's. And of course Mandelson is back now.
Vera Baird might be another possible promotion, say to justice in place of Jack Straw, if he were moved. Or Michael Wills, who may have earned something with all the balls he's had to talk about rights and responsibilities. Having enough women is a problem for Brown, though, so my money's on Vera.
I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Margaret Beckett back in the cabinet. He never should have sacked her in the first place. And of course Yvette Cooper will move up.
I think the options are very limited, too. If I were David Miliband, I'd insist on keeping my job, or leaving the government. If I were Alistair Darling, the only other job I'd accept would be the FO. I don't think Brown can afford either on the backbenches, so I reckon they stay. It's just about replacing Jacqui Smith, isn't it? Denham should avoid it. So should everyone else, really. Why Jack Straw should do it I have no idea, and it'd look desperate. Balls, I suppose. Although if Hattie is serious about never wanting the top job, she might as well be Home Secretary, even if only for a for a bit. Or chancellor...
I bet he reorganises and renames departments, though. Perhaps create some sort of overarching "recovery, life chances, hard-working families and not doing nothing" department, or something.
How about Stephen Pound he can be relied upon to toe the Labour line come what may.
Jackboot pays council tax on her Redditch family home, as it's her main residence. Her claim that her sister's spare room is her main residence is clearly fraudulent.
We need a police investigation - and she should be suspended without pay until this is complete.
We can't have a fraudster in charge of the Home Office.
Surely, Brown can't afford to keep Smith anywhere near government: she's a daily embarrassment. Her latest attempt to distract us by trying to suppress views she disagrees with has only added to this.
And as for the 'problem' of losing two women from the cabinet at once: surely some of the problems the government has result from appointing ministers on the basis of 'gender balance', rather than aptitude.
Jane Kennedy is a good undervalued by both Blair and Brown minister
she would be good at health should there be a vacancy
It's about time Beverley Hughes was promoted to the cabinet. She's always been reasonably competent and honourable. Surely to God she couldn't do a worse job than Smith or Mrs Balls?
The reshuffle will happen and Jacqboots will go.
The Tories need to call for her sacking and declare they have no confidence in her. Brown will have to defend her, in which case, he looks indecisive when he eventually does the inevitable.
The Tories can add to the chaos in the bunker by pressuring Brown NOW. What would Brown want? To have Jacqui Timney out of the news until the reshuffle, surely. Why then would the Tories grant him this wish?
If the breakaway Irish terrorist organisations really want some gratitude from the English mainland, they could all help us be targetting some, if not all of the current labour cabinet. Smith, Blears, Harman immediately spring to mind. Brown is a given, but could they perhaps pay some attention to Blair. And Hoon, Straw, Mandelson. It was always obvious that there were others behind the IRA, names that we are not aware of, I'm sure there are similar eminence grise, in the labour party. A third party who could identify and 'condition' them would be such a welcome breath of fresh air into the politics of this country.
john in cheshire
From that list, does anyone know what the "Minister for the Third Sector" is responsible for?!
Go steady there "John in Cheshire" (Anon 2:38PM)
I'm all in favour of a democratic expulsion of the dreadful shower you name, but to actually advocate some form of terrorist atrocity as a means to effect such change, even in "jest", isn't just beyond the pale, it's abhorrent.
The "Third Sector" is made up non-government non-profit entities such as charities etc. What in the U.S. is called "not for profit".
Just in case you don't know how to use Wikipedia.
PS: Old Holborn say's he'll be reporting Jackboot's fraud to the police. Good for him!
Unless Brown plans to enoble more reptiles from the past and put them in the Cabinet?
Better to leave the sit. vac., less harm that way.
Jacqui Smith looks like the class sneak, doesn't she?
10:24 - What the hell is the Women's Budget Group? Dear God, does it never end? And Cameron wants to have quotas in the Cabinet.
Do they not realise how normal people not only hate this crap, but DO NOT RELATE TO IT?
If Cameron wants to impose quotas, I have one for him: a quota of one married male, acknowledged father of resident children, in every social housing "unit".
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