Sunak reshuffle shows he’s done with playing it safe – but sacked cabinet member is already discussing leadership ‘play’
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
When it comes to Rishi Sunak’s reset, it appears to be third time lucky as the prime minister sought to take back control of his ailing premiership.
Sacking Suella Braverman as home secretary only to bring back former prime minister David Cameron as foreign secretary was a genuine “marmalade dropper” moment – no one was expecting that.
Follow live updates and analysis on cabinet reshuffle
Finally, after months of seeming on the ropes, Mr Sunak appears to be putting up a fight.
Bumping along the bottom, many in his own party had been doubting whether this premiership was ever going to get going, particularly after reset moment number one – party conference – and then number two – the King’s Speech – failed to get off the ground.
“This reshuffle is bolder than anyone thought,” says one former cabinet minister.
“The boldness is there, even if there is incredulity at some of his moves.”
A Sunak loyalist believes the PM is finally grasping the nettle, saying: “He needed to shake things up and show who he is.”
To that end, he is clearing out some of those who were put into his cabinet for party management reasons, when he was made prime minister just over a year ago.
His insubordinate home secretary, who he has been forced to defend repeatedly over the past year, is out – while Liz Truss’s former deputy Therese Coffey has also had to make way for Sunak supporters at the top table.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Suella Braverman’s controversial career
Downing Street insiders say this reshuffle, in the making for weeks, is all about showing unity and purpose around the PM and bringing together a cabinet where “competence is king”.
He is promoting his key supporters to key positions as he gets the cabinet on to an election footing, with James Cleverly now in place to lead on his small boats pledge and Vicky Atkins promoted to health secretary, with the NHS a key battleground – and weak spot – going into the general election.
Another key ally, Laura Trott, is put into the Treasury as the deputy to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, while long-term ally John Glen moves over to the Cabinet Office to help deputy PM Oliver Dowden with delivery.
But while the prime minister has captured attention by bringing back a former prime minister in this bold reshuffle, it is not without risk.
One former cabinet minister tells me that Mr Cameron will relish the chance to reinvent himself on the world stage, but there is a risk for Mr Sunak of being outshone by the former leader’s charisma.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Cameron speaks after shock return
That said, Mr Cameron comes with plenty of baggage too – from disagreeing with Mr Sunak’s position on HS2 and cutting the overseas aid budget, to his role in the biggest lobbying scandal in Britain for decades.
The Financial Times revealed Mr Cameron had secretly lobbied former colleagues in government on behalf of his employer Greensill Capital, which Labour seized on within minutes of the announcement of Mr Cameron’s return.
There is also the matter of an even more disgruntled party, as ambitious MPs despair of a PM who can’t find anyone in the current crop of MPs to take over as foreign secretary.
Click to subscribe to the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts
Meanwhile, the right wing of the party looks on in alarm as this socially conservative prime minister, who looked to be tacking to the right – be it on immigration or drawing dividing lines on gender wars – places his flag very much on the centre ground, with the green-loving, socially liberal, centre-ground David Cameron – the new right-hand man of the prime minister.
Read more:
We haven’t heard the last of Suella Braverman
Greensill connection risks haunting Cameron’s return – analysis
Cameron’s comeback: Three key questions people are asking
While the One Nation group of Tories believes it is getting its party back, the right are feeling very much left out in the cold.
The New Conservative grouping of right-wingers including Suella Braverman, Sir John Hayes, Miriam Cates and Danny Kruger are meeting later with, according to one source, the issue of Braverman’s leadership “play” on the agenda.
That doesn’t mean an outright bid now, but the intent is clear. As one of her supporters put it to me over the weekend: “There is upside if she leaves government. From her point of view, it would be easier. She’s spending eight hours a day on necessary and difficult issues, so she doesn’t get a lot of space.
“Suella’s gone from the attorney general who nobody heard of to the home secretary everybody’s heard of. If she were Queen over the water, she’d have papers covering her everyday.”
What everyone can agree with is that the prime minister, with little left to lose, is done with playing it safe.
This is one of his last rolls of the dice. Some may say it’s a “hail Mary” pass for a leader so far behind in the polls and a party now potentially fracturing even more. Unity in the new cabinet, maybe, but what happens on the backbenchers?
To evoke a thought from the old regime, Dominic Cummings was a keen student of Chinese military strategist and philosopher Sun Tzu, who argued that surprise brings victory and the PM today has confounded his opponents.
Whether it brings anything approaching even a shot at victory is an entirely different matter, but he’s signalled in this reshuffle he’s back in the game.
South Africa emerges as a leading digital asset hub, driving growth in crypto with proactive regulations and expanding platforms like VALR.
Politics
Angela Rayner promises flagship workers’ law next month as she pledges ‘things can get better’
Angela Rayner has promised to bring Labour’s flagship workers’ rights bill to parliament next month as she told her party’s conference: “Things can get better if we make the right choices.”
The government has faced criticism in recent weeks over its pessimistic messaging around the economy, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer warning October’s Budget would be “painful” in order to deal with the £22bn “black hole” he claims was left by the Conservatives.
But while his deputy said the party “can’t wish our problems away”, she said “hope won” when Labour achieved its landslide at the last election, adding: “Change has begun.”
Politics live: Rayner speaks at Labour conference
Speaking on the conference floor on the first full day of Labour’s annual gathering, Ms Rayner said: “Let me be blunt. We can’t wish our problems away. We have to face them. That’s the difference between opposition and government.
“But… things can get better if we make the right choices. Sustained economic growth is the only way to improve the lives of working people, and we’re fixing the foundations to put Britain back on the path to growth. No more talking, but doing.”
The deputy prime minister reiterated her party’s plans to improve renters’ rights, including ending no-fault evictions “for good”, as well as promising a “devolution revolution” in the north of England, and the “biggest boost to social and affordable housing in a generation”.
But some of the biggest cheers from delegates came over her long-trailed plan to increase workers’ rights across the country, with her promising to bring the Employment Rights Bill to the Commons in October.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Concerns have been raised over the legislation by some in the business community, with an Institute of Directors’ survey earlier this month citing the bill as a reason for pessimism among firms who fear the impact on their operations.
But the government has sought to play down any divide, and held several roundtables with company leaders in recent weeks to allay their fears.
Championing the bill, Ms Rayner said: “They said we couldn’t do it. Some tried to stop it in its tracks. But after years of opposition, we are on the verge of historic legislation to make work more secure, make it more family friendly, go further and faster to close the gender pay gap, ensure rights are enforced and trade unions are strengthened.
“That means repealing the Tories’ anti-worker laws and new rights for union reps too. A genuine living wage and sick pay for the lowest earners, banning exploitative zero-hour contracts and unpaid internships, ending fire and rehire. And we will bring in basic rights from day one on the job.
“This is our plan to make work pay, and it’s coming to a workplace near you.”
Concluding her speech, the deputy prime minister said: “On 4 July, the people entrusted us with the task of change and hope won. Now is our moment, not just to say, but to do.
“Labour governments of the past took on this same challenge at a time when Britain desperately needed change. They delivered a better Britain when the odds were stacked against them.
“And that is exactly what this Labour government must deliver once again. So conference, let’s get on with it.”
Angela Rayner will set out measures to protect renters from fire safety defects, damp and mould in her speech at the Labour Party conference.
The deputy prime minister, who is also the housing secretary, will commit to “building homes fit for the future” when she opens the party’s first annual gathering since winning the general election.
The package will include bringing forward a Remediation Acceleration Plan this autumn to speed up the removal of unsafe cladding on high-rise buildings.
Deadly cladding remains on more than half of all residential blocks of flats identified as at risk since the Grenfell fire in 2017.
The issue has come back into the spotlight following the conclusion of the inquiry into the tragedy, which found that “systematic dishonesty” contributed to the blaze that killed 72 people.
The announcement of the acceleration plan was thin on detail, but the government said it would go “further and faster to fix unsafe cladding and make existing homes safe”.
Other measures Ms Rayner will announce on Sunday include consulting on a new “decent homes standard” for the social and private rented sectors, and a new law to make landlords respond to complaints about disrepair within legally binding timescales.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
These have already been announced as part of Labour’s Renters’ Rights Bill, which builds on long-awaited legislation that was promised by the Tories but ultimately shelved ahead of the general election.
The law regarding repairs will be named after two-year-old Awaab Ishak, who died as a direct result of exposure to mould in the social home his family rented in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.
Awaab Ishak
The Conservatives first proposed Awaab’s Law to cover the social rented sector, but Labour will extend it to cover the private sector in a move they say will help tenants in 746,000 homes with reported serious hazards secure faster repairs.
Commenting ahead of her speech, Ms Rayner, who has also pledged to build 1.5 million homes over the next five years, said: “Just because Britain isn’t working at the moment, it doesn’t mean it can’t be fixed.
“We will deliver for working people and, in doing so, show that politics can change lives.
“This Labour government is taking a wave of bold action to not only build the housing our country needs and boost social and affordable housing, but to ensure all homes are decent, safe, and warm.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
‘All MPs take gifts and donations’
The speech comes as a donations row threatens to overshadow the optimistic mood of the party’s first conference while in government for 15 years.
The prime minister has come under scrutiny over the past week for the more than £100,000 worth of gifts he has accepted, including tickets to football matches, concerts and luxury clothes.
Following days of press coverage on the issue, it emerged on Friday that Sir Keir and his most senior ministers – Ms Rayner and Chancellor Rachel Reeves – will no longer accept donations to pay for clothes.
On Saturday, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told Sky News that there had not been an undue influence in gifts accepted by her colleagues but “we don’t want the news and the commentary to be dominated by conversations about clothes”.
She defended the prime minister’s actions as being within the rules, saying that the taxpayer doesn’t fund these things “so MPs will always take donations, will always take gifts in kind”.
She added: “We expect our politicians to be well turned out, we expect them to be people who go out and represent us at different events and represent the country at different events and are clothed appropriately.
“But the point is that when we accept donations for that or for anything else, that we declare them and we’re open and transparent about them.”
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports6 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports11 months agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Environment1 year agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Environment1 year agoTesla advances Powerwall pilot project with German electric company