Is Keir Starmer on a War Footing? Clues from a Cabinet Reshuffle.
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Is Keir Starmer on a War Footing? Clues from a Cabinet Reshuffle.
Britain's Opposition Leader shook up his Shadow Cabinet. Is he finally setting up his team for elections? And how does it compare to Labour's last successful election reshuffle?
The Conservative Party seems to have slightly diminished its electoral prospects by (among other things) having 3 different party leaders and Prime Ministers in less than 6 months. As a result, Kier Starmer has become Britain’s now long standing, highly experienced (wait for it) ‘Prime Minister-in-waiting’. Since Boris Johnson’s epic fail the Labour leader has led almost all polls, secured significant by-election and local election victories, and now potentially made his final, pre-election shadow cabinet reshuffle. (Exhausting really).
It does, though, beg the question whether this reshuffle is a reflection of his presumed position as the next shoe-in British Prime Minister. Or is it like the PM job itself, a game of musical chairs that can result in zippo change despite swapping enough seats to sink a Titanic - or two.
What is a reshuffle? Or even a shadow cabinet? Well, it’s not a big dark piece of furniture for your kitchen, despite the name. Rather, in British politics the team who make up the full government is called the ‘Cabinet’. Proving that we were all carpenters at some point!
Opposition leaders, upset that the reigning Prime Minister (sorry Charles) gets to have all the fun, do their best to maintain their own backup cabinets - a kind of showcase piece in case the current Government’s cabinet starts to wear out or gives the public too many butt-shaving splinters.
British cabinets, both shadow and Government, are incredibly versatile, particularly given they do not need outside approval to appoint or fire cabinet ministers. As a result, leaders cycle people in and out quite freely - a bit like the board of BP. This rarely happens on an individual basis outside of the obvious firings or forced resignations. Again, like BP.
When one flawed piece of policy falls down they take the hammer hit rather than the PM.
The political movement of a whole flock of people in and out of the cabinet taking place all at once is a’ reshuffle’ - chosen today when it suits Kier Starmer or Rishi Sunak, or perhaps in Rishi’s case, whenever ‘they’ tell him.
Considering Kier’s latest reshuffle, it helps to understand past shadow cabinet reshuffles, turning to the most obvious man Starmer might emulate: former Prime Minister, current Least Popular Knight of the Realm, and like most medieval Knights, accused war criminal Tony Blair. Blair in 1994 made his shadow cabinet reshuffle in remarkably similar circumstances. Unlike Starmer though, Blair turned his entire cabinet inside out, moving around all but his favourite piece of Scottish crockery, Gordon Brown.
Blair’s decisive changes reflected a man looking to stamp his mark on the party. In a time where reshuffles were less of a consistent beating heart of British politics, Blair’s first and last cabinet reshuffle before his election is similar to Starmer’s latest changes. Having initially taken over from the last gasp of “Old Labour”, Neil Kinnock, Blair’s first cabinet was respectful of the party’s large population of old-fashioned socialists.
However, after two years and commanding polling and by-election results, Blair became more confident and moved to strip out those ideologically dissimilar from him, keeping just his long term second in command, Brown, in place. Robin Cook, Alistair Darling and Nick Brown were all sidelined for disagreeing with Brown and Blair’s economic view, while Andrew Smith, a Blair ally was given shadow Chief Secretary despite not even putting his hand up for a Shadow Cabinet role.
Jack Straw, another Blair ally became Home Secretary over Margaret Beckett, who was a former Deputy Leader of the party and the second most popular non-Blair name in the party at the time. Other, more minor Cabinet positions were also rotated, largely seeing long term, older style (more socialist) Labour, and less obviously New Labour aligned MPs ousted in favour of those who thought more similarly to Tony Blair.
Remarkably, 30 years later, it appears Kier Starmer has also opted to stock his cabinet with people who think similarly to Tony Blair.
*And bear with me as I run out of carpentry/cabinetry/crockery quips…
Starmer is in a similar position to Blair having taken over from a “somewhat left-footed loon” and so has whipped the leftist wing of the party into the wilds. As a result, many of Starmer’s decisions seem to echo those made by Blair in 1994 - as example the demotion of populist voice Lisa Nandy from the “Levelling Up” minister to “Internal Development” a role officially outside the formal shadow cabinet.
Starmer has also emulated Blair by bringing in some of his former cabinet members. Hillary Benn joined Parliament in 1999 and quickly earned a Junior Cabinet position under Blair in 2004, and then in 2007 joined Brown’s Senior Cabinet as Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Benn, now a long-tenured MP, joins Starmer’s high level team as Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary. The position is an understated and yet essential role, especially with the Northern Irish issue ever relevant given some of them struggle to find the parliament building in Stormont, which might equally be a reflection of the quality of the local watering holes.
Benn’s starting remit should at least be straight forward: First item - forming a Devolved Government.
Starmer hasn’t just appointed old Blair buddies since the bulk of his highest level cabinet will remain in place. Nevertheless, more junior positions have been shuffled, particularly those relevant to the impending elections. What Blair did in 1994 was all about exerting his power on the party - Starmer’s changes indicate that Labour is now firmly on an election footing. New, old Labour style!
Pat Macfadden, a young MP with experience as a Parliamentary Aide to Blair’s cabinet ministers, has been given a new and essential job: handling the Party’s 2024 election. By law it should happen in 2024 unless Houdini-like Sunak continues to avoid his first election by either picking a massive fight with Putin or by going awol picking fruit to keep the number of required immigrants down. His hottest pledge for 2023.
On top of Macfadden’s appointment Ellie Reeves is now Deputy National Campaign Coordinator with the remit of handling the next batch of upcoming by-elections. Given we’re looking at hitting 3 such elections over the next couple of months, Ellie will be kept very much on her twinkle toes.
Starmer’s party has re-enforced that the reshuffle is about the election, with party sources stating “The new shadow Cabinet is all about winning — and then governing”.
It seems inevitable that Starmer’s reshuffle is about the election, but like Blair, it is similarly about asserting his authority as ‘New Labour’s’ next dictator. Starmer won leadership on the back of convincing Labour members he would be Corbyn with a suit. However, with him backtracking on most of his early election promises, and culling the left-wing of his party, he seems to be taking more than a feather out of Blair’s cap. Blair’s example could wind up working well for him - if not the most transformative approach for the country. Undeniably though, this reshuffle makes it clear that Starmer will be winning the election his way, the right way or a much pot-holed British high-way!
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