5.31am EDT
05:31
Here is my colleague Jessica Elgot‘s analysis of yesterday’s reshuffle.
Here is an extract.
Whitehall sources said the casualties were intended to put his ministers on notice about the prime minister’s strength of position. Robert Buckland, the justice secretary, lost his job despite no discernible wrongdoing. Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, was unceremoniously fired despite fears he could be a threat on the backbenches. One government source said all ministers “would know they are dispensable”.
One Tory compared the reshuffle to Margaret Thatcher’s 1981 “purge of the wets” – a brutal show of authority after 18 months of rebellions and U-turns. “Boris has shown people he’s in charge,” they said. “People won’t mess around now. Anyone can get chopped.”
And here are four other reshuffle analysis articles that are well worth reading.
Paul Goodman at ConservativeHome also says the reshuffle proves that Johnson is firmly in control.
Rather, the performance of ministers shows up, by and large, in where the members place them. At any rate, the government’s spin on the shuffle this morning is that the new cabinet is stronger than the old one, and so better placed to build back better and level up Britain.
This is true as far as it goes. Michael Gove is a more formidable politician than Robert Jenrick; Nadhim Zahawi a more capable executive than Gavin Williamson, Oliver Dowden a more experienced manager than Amanda Milling.
But the point of the reshuffle is not only, or even primarily, to bring a sharper cutting edge to reform. It is to tighten the grip of Johnson’s chunky fist on power, now that he has decided a shuffle can no longer be postponed.
For those promoted are either Johnson loyalists, like Nadine Dorries and Anne-Marie Trevelyan; sent sideways to do a specific job, like Oliver Dowden or Steve Barclay, or placed where they won’t be a threat to the Prime Minister’s leadership.
Robert Shrimsley in the Financial Times says the reshuffle shows that Johnson “recognises the need to turn levelling-up from a slogan into a cogent plan of action”.
While other changes may generate more headlines, the key move is the appointment of Michael Gove as communities and housing secretary with a particular focus on the levelling-up agenda. Whatever criticisms are made of Gove’s politics, he is seen by Johnson as an effective and forceful minister who is more likely than most to turn what has heretofore been a nebulous slogan into a detailed strategy. Gove has become Johnson’s go-to minister for major strategic challenges and his appointment signals the prime minister’s concern that the huge expectations he has stoked need to be turned into visible delivery.
Laura Kuenssberg at the BBC says there was no ideological theme to the reshuffle.
What’s harder to divine is any one strong political ideology, or any radical guiding idea. Certainly, politicians popular with the Tory party like Truss seem to have prospered. Loyalty to the prime minister himself seems to have been rewarded.
But it’s not a Brexit cabinet, or a small-state cabinet, or to use Tory verbiage, a “one-nation” cabinet for those more in the middle.
It’s a Johnson cabinet, with no particular bent towards any one faction or tribe. For some of his backers, that is one of Mr Johnson’s attributes – he’s not wedded to principle, but staying on top. For other Tories, that’s rather the problem – with no one strong ideology other than a desire to win, it begs the question of what it’s all really for.
Beth Rigby at Sky says the reshuffle showed a “rebooting the prime minister’s domestic agenda, with three key briefs changing hands: education; housing and communities; and the judiciary – being given to ministers that the prime minister hopes will deliver real reform”.
This was a prime minister today who, in the words of one of his colleagues, was “cordial but clinical”. “It was a butcher’s yard.”
There’s no doubt his success in driving the health and social care tax levy through the backbenches has emboldened the prime minister but he knows all too well that shuffling the deck always carries risk as the swell of discontent grows.
But in the past 10 days, he has clearly defined what he wants from his government. The question is whether he can deliver it.
5.10am EDT
05:10
In the Commons John Nicholson, the SNP’s culture spokesperson in the Commons, gives Nadine Dorries a less warm welcome, saying that she has a long anti-gay rights record. “Just as well there are no homosexuals in the arts sector,” he says sarcastically.
This is what Benjamin Cohen from Pink News tweeted about Dorries’ record on gay rights yesterday.
(@benjamincohen)
In 2012, new Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries claimed that she had never met a single gay couple who wanted to marry. When @PinkNews published this, thousands of gay couples tried to enlighten her. She voted against same-sex marriage anyway saying it took ‘sex out of marriage’ pic.twitter.com/eMBldumZkd
Updated
at 5.19am EDT
5.03am EDT
05:03
In the Commons David Davis, the former Brexit secretary, tells Nadine Dorries that he welcomes her appointment to cabinet, saying it shows “you don’t need to be a boring conformist to get on”.
4.54am EDT
04:54
The latest edition of the Guardian’s Politics Weekly podcast is out. In a reshuffle special, Aubrey Allegretti and Rowena Mason look at the winners and losers of Boris Johnson’s reshuffle. Plus, Jessica Elgot and Rafael Behr analyse the government’s Covid winter plan.
4.52am EDT
04:52
BBC director general says he will not be ‘distracted’ by Dorries’ previous attacks on corporation
Tim Davie, the BBC director general, said this morning that he would not be “distracted” by the previous anti-BBC comments from Nadine Dorries, the new culture secretary. Asked about some of her previous remarks, he told the RTS Cambridge Convention 2021:
I wouldn’t get too distracted by it; it’s all about sitting down with the ministers and the teams and really getting into it, I’m not distracted by it. I think we have got a strong case for investment in the BBC.
Davie also said he was looking forward to meeting Dorries.
We need a really serious, grown-up dialogue with government, it’s an incredibly important topic. There will always be a bit of theatre but we will sit down and have a proper dialogue around the BBC, and I look forward to it.
4.43am EDT
04:43
Boris Johnson will make a statement in the Commons later on the new US/UK/Australia security partnership, Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the Commons has announced.
(@CommonsLeader)
Later today the Prime Minister will make a statement updating MPs on AUKUS. pic.twitter.com/HOB0QXmcbo
Normally a statement of this kind would come at 10.30am.
Updated
at 4.43am EDT
4.39am EDT
04:39
In the Commons Nadine Dorries, the new culture secretary, is now taking questions. The first question was about the review of football governance, and Dorries started by talking about her own football credentials. Her great grandfather was one of the founders of Everton football club, she said – although she stressed that she herself was a Liverpool fan.
4.26am EDT
04:26
Good morning. Yesterday Boris Johnson carried out a cabinet reshuffle that turned out to be bolder, more far-reaching, more interesting, and probably more strategic, than most people were expecting. It was also remarkably smooth by reshuffle standards. Only Dominic Raab seemed to offer much resistance to what was proposed, and as far as we know at this point Johnson was able to make all his cabinet appointments according to plan.
Here is our overnight story.
And there is more to come, because today Johnson is reshuffling more junior ministers. Downing Street has just sent out the first announcement.
Penny Mordaunt, who was defence secretary when Theresa May was PM and who until yesterday was paymaster general in the Cabinet Office, becomes a minister of state at the Department for International Trade.
Michael Ellis replaces her as paymaster general. Until recently he was attorney general, covering for Suella Braverman while she took maternity leave.
Mordaunt used Twitter earlier this morning to announce she was moving.
(@PennyMordaunt)
Thank you to @cabinetoffice colleagues and partners for the last 20 months and all we achieved. Especially proud of the overhaul of the risk register, 1HMG cyber and the new resilience strategy. We are on track to be the most resilient nation. ??https://t.co/XvG5cSdPc7
(@PennyMordaunt)
Pleased to have helped so many parliamentary colleagues, especially the 2019ers, through their pandemic casework and to have served on the Withdrawal Agreement Joint Committee and partnership council to get Brexit done. pic.twitter.com/uBKv25zu1V
(@PennyMordaunt)
Privilege to have made progress for those affected by the infected blood scandal, inc. getting compensation work underway. TY to all those who gave me their time and testimony, and Sir Brian, Sir Robert, @DianaJohnsonMP and the APPG. No longer your Minister, still on your team. pic.twitter.com/4BnzoQqbag
(@PennyMordaunt)
Good luck to my successor and…look after the cats! pic.twitter.com/3aYMq0GCB5
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Nadine Dorries, the new culture secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
9.30am: The ONS publishes its latest Covid antibodies survey, plus new figures about the symptoms of people with coronavirus.
10.20am: Will Quince and Mims Davies, who are both welfare ministers, give evidence to the Commons work and pensions committee about the universal credit cut.
11.30am: Downing Street holds its daily lobby briefing.
12pm: Sajid Javid, the health secretary, gives a speech in Blackpool on his vision for levelling up in health.
12pm: Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, takes questions in the Scottish parliament.
For further Covid coverage, do read our global live blog.
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Updated
at 4.53am EDT