New Ministers, and those already serving as Ministers but were moved to new jobs, have been moving into their new offices this week and learning about their new responsibilities. They have also been making the journey by road and rail up to Sandringham, the Queen’s Norfolk country home, to receive their Seals of Office – the document actually making them a Minister – from Her Majesty, in whose government they serve. For Justine Greening, and the others relinquishing office, who also had to make the journey to surrender their Seals of Office it will have been a particularly long and miserable journey. For all the others having a peek at the inside of Sandringham will have been a special treat.
A huge amount of time and comment has been expended on the competence of the reshuffle, its pre-briefings, who moved and who refused to move, how long it took, and all the rest of it. The reshuffle and its fall-out has dominated this past week, but now as the dust settles and MPs head back to their constituencies can we take a more measured view about what has and has not happened.
First and foremost the most important part of the changes was achieved smoothly – David Lidington moved to take charge of the Cabinet Office, chair a huge number of committees and be the PM’s de facto deputy. This was an obvious and sensible move. Dr Lidington, he holds a Cambridge PhD, is highly intelligent, experienced, wise, calm, well thought of – and tough. Tough not in a brutal knuckle duster sort of way, but in a steely not to be deflected kind of a way. Having served as PPS to both William Hague and Michael Howard as Leaders of the Party, and then a Parliament as Europe Minister, Dr Lidington knows how to deal with tricky Leaders and bend the Parliamentary Party to his bosses will. He is an expert sorcerer in the political arts.
To support him, and a worthy sorcerer’s apprentice, is Oliver Dowden. Discrete, efficient, calm, a former David Cameron aide turned MP, Dowden has been put into the Cabinet Office to provide additional grip. Already a toughish operator this tour of duty will see him help enforce the Prime Minister’s decisions and ensure her writ runs across Whitehall.
Whether Jeremy Hunt is right, let alone wise, to insist on staying at Health is not clear. Ministers implement Government, not personal policy. For any Minister to make their job overly personal is unwise. Arguably Hunt has done his current job for long enough. He has done a difficult job proficiently. Now he, and the department, need a fresh approach, a change of tempo and a new personality at the top of the department. In most Whitehall departments too much change of Secretary of State has become a serious issue. Not so at health. In any event Hunt has had his way and he stays at a job without end, or easy answer.
Hunt’s refusal to move meant that little else really happened at Cabinet level, except for the accidental departure of Justine Greening. With her marginal pro-Remain seat the fact is she is probably better off with the freedom of the backbenches. David Gauke will be a highly able and sensible Justice Secretary as he was at DWP. Daminan Hinds will be effective too. In her last tour at DWP Esther McVey had a tough time as a Minister. It will be no easier for her as Secretary of State, but she is resilient and determined.
Two of the interesting Cabinet changes of course had already occurred with Penny Mordaunt and Gavin Williamson arriving at the top table. Patrick Mcloughlin had done a difficult job as Party Chairman with characteristic grace and resilience. It was not his, or CCHQ’s fault that the 2017 General Election did not go as well as it might have done. He long wanted out and Brandon Lewis, who successfully won Great Yarmouth in 2010 where I had failed in 2005, is an obvious and welcome successor. Experienced in local as well as national government he enjoys campaigning and loves the Conservative Party. He will not be afraid to do what is needed to CCHQ and the Party in the country. To help him he has been given a raft of young and ambitious Vice Chairs. If he can harness their talents and energy effectively interesting and good things will follow. Party appointments though are primarily of interest to the Party – but successful regeneration of the machine will be a key indicator of the success of the Government’s ability to reach out across the country with its policies – and it is the appeal of the Government’s policies that will, in the end, determine its future.
To measure the intentions in that area day two of the reshuffle was perhaps much more interesting and indicative. Day two saw a raft of new and interesting people from the 2015 and 2017 intakes being promoted. They, increasingly, will drive the tone and direction of the government. This new batch of Ministers provide an insight into what the Conservative Party will look like when the current generation at the top of the Party move on. It is this new batch of Ministers too who will have to ensure the government develops and delivers new, innovative, and voter friendly policies – because it is now all about the delivery.
