Why Starmer’s reshuffle of his inner circle will help put No 10 back on track

The prime minister has toughened his defences against a right-wing press vendetta against him, writes John Rentoul

The plot by the right-wing press to destabilise the new government has been busted. They were out to get Keir Starmer, using his chief of staff Sue Gray as a proxy. She was hounded for two crimes: telling the truth about Boris Johnson and being paid more than the prime minister.

But now Starmer has acted decisively to frustrate the Conservatives laying siege to his fledgling administration. Gray’s position was starting to become untenable, because she had become “the story” and, more significantly, because she had failed to gain the trust of the special advisers who are needed to make the government work.

It was suggested that she would be “gone by Christmas”, but Starmer has moved quickly to end that story and to install Morgan McSweeney, his election-winning strategist, as chief of staff instead – with a slew of further political appointments to strengthen No 10.

He has outflanked Johnson, who used the interviews arranged to promote his memoir to attack Gray. He accused her, in effect, of undermining him, the democratically elected leader, when all she did was to set out, calmly and dispassionately, the facts about lockdown parties in Downing Street. At the time there were many complaints that she had pulled her punches and been too soft on Johnson, failing to follow up some of the allegations of more flagrant breaches of Covid rules.

Indeed, some of us remember a time when Gray was praised to the skies by both sides of politics as one of the finest civil servants, with a reputation for sea-green incorruptibility. That she should be hounded out of office is a tragedy and a reminder, as Alan Watkins used to say, that politics is a rough old trade.

But she probably was not the right person for that job, and Starmer, contrary to hostile commentary about the slow pace of his decision-making, has acted quickly to move her to the council of nations and regions, aligned with her last job in the civil service. Unlike Johnson, who kept Dominic Cummings in post as the equivalent of chief of staff for long after his adviser had become totally dysfunctional, Starmer has cut the drama short and put in McSweeney, a ruthless political mind who will give clarity to the No 10 operation.

McSweeney is the creative intelligence behind Starmer’s success, first in winning the leadership of the Labour Party and then in winning a huge election victory in the country. It makes sense to have him at the top of the political side of No 10, working alongside Nin Pandit, the new civil service principal private secretary (PPS).

Suddenly, the Tory press “line to take” about a vacuum in No 10 has disintegrated. There is no PPS and no cabinet secretary, they said; the No 10 operation is weak. Now there is a powerful chief of staff, with two deputies, and a PPS. A new cabinet secretary will be appointed in time and after a due process.

The communications role has been boosted by the appointment of James Lyons, a former lobby journalist on The Sunday Times who has been head of communications for the NHS. He has been brought in as head of strategic communications, reporting to Matthew Doyle, who remains the prime minister’s chief political spokesperson.

For all that Gray became a household name for her inquiry into Partygate, she remains unknown by the public, and the furore over her move will be forgotten within 24 hours.

These are early days for the government, and it was more important for Starmer to get his key appointments in No 10 right than to follow the timetable set by the Tory press. He has made mistakes over accepting gifts from Waheed Alli and others that have tarnished the new government’s early reputation – and to the extent that Gray was implicated in those misjudgements, her move makes it easier for Starmer to move on.

Starmer’s best revenge against the plotters in the Tory press and the Tory party who are out to get him will be to succeed. His strengthening of the team at No 10 gives him the best chance of doing so.