Cabinet Reshuffle: Live Blog
10:19 am - June 5th 2009
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So far as the so-called Blairite putsch is concern, that’s starting to look more and more like a bit of a damp squib.
Blears and Purnell may have gone, but with both Peter Mandelson and, crucially, John Hutton, throwing their weight behind Brown, his immediate future is starting to look rather more secure than much of the media speculation over he last few couple of days might have suggested.
Moving on to the changes at the top, the early news is that there’s no change at the Treasury, with Alistair Darling remaining in post as Chancellor after, allegedly, declining a sideways move to the Home Office.
However, the first big move of the day sees Alan Johnson step up to the Home Office, one of the four great offices of state. Johnson, who’s been widely tipped as a possible replacement for Brown now looks to be in an even stronger position in any future leadership contest, although the Home Affairs portfolio is also one that brings more than its fair share of potential banana skins.
Finally, for our opening salvo, rumours are circulating that Sir Alan Sugar has been offered a role in government as its new ‘Enterprise Tsar’ – whether that also means that we’ll soon be referring to him as Lord Sugar of Amstrad is not entirely clear at this stage.
More news as it emerges…
10:37 – Well there’s an interesting development… having spoken out in support of Gordon Brown, John Hutton has now announced that he’s standing down as Defence Secretary with immediate effect and is also considering leaving the Commons at the next election for ‘family reasons’.
10:44 – Rumours that David Miliband might join the Blairite exodus from the Cabinet appear to have been rather misplaced. Miliband has apparently made it clear that he will not be resigning from the government, which, in turn, suggests that he’ll be remaining in post as Foreign Secretary.
11:02 – Staying put… Jack Straw (Justice), Peter Mandelson (Business and Enterprise) and Jim Murphy (Scotland). No real surprises there.
11:04 – On Hutton’s resignation, the Beeb are now reporting that Brown was told of his decision to step down some weeks ago.
11:07 – David Miliband is staying on as Foreign Secretary.
11:15 – John Prescott’s stinging attack on Harriet Harman and others, over at Labour Home, is well worth a read while you’re waiting for more announcements…
11:30 – All quiet on the Downing Street front at the moment, which makes it time to resort to one of my own liveblogging ‘traditions’ and chuck in a bit of video to keep everyone entertained.
So, I’d like to dedicate this first video to all the BNP candidates who stood in yesterday’s elections…
11:35 – More action on the reshuffle front as it appears that John Denham will be replacing Alan Johnson at Health. Very much a case of Higher Education’s loss is the NHS’s gain.
11:43 – It’s now been confirmed that Hutton will be leaving parliament at the next General Election.
11:51 – Hutton is also stressing that he has not stood down for ‘family reasons’ but has simply taken a personal decision to leave politics and begin a new career.
News is also coming in from local elections – Labour have lost control of Staffordshire County Council, leaving the party with overall control of only one council – Sandwell – in the West Midlands.
Serial Blairite troublemaker, Siobhain McDonagh has also shipped up on the Beeb to call for a leadership with the claim that there are unnamed members of the cabinet who have accepted – or will accept – posts in the reshuffled government despite their lack of confidence in Gordon Brown.
12:01 – Scratch that comment from 11:35 – John Denham will be replacing Hazel Blears as Communities Secretary, which strikes me as a very good move indeed.
12:30 Purnell’s replacement at the DWP is… Yvette Cooper.
12:49 – Ed Balls was hotly tipped to replace Alistair Darling as Chancellor but will be staying at DCFS.
14:24 – Finally, a bit more action. Bob Ainsworth takes over at Defence, which leaving Health to go amongst the major ministries…
14:50 – BBC project the national vote share: Con 38%, Lib Dems 28%, Lab 23%, that’s up 6%, up 6% and down 12% respectively compared to the 2005 General Election.
15:11 More reshuffle news – Hain stays in post as Minister for Wales and its expected that Andy Burnham will take over the Health portfolio and not, as some expected, Caroline Flint.
It’s also been reported, on what is palpable a good day to bury bad news, that the Metropolitan Police do not expect to bring any charges arising from complaints relating to MPs expenses claims.
It’s also just been reported that Doncaster has elected an English Democrat candidate as its new mayor.
15:37 As Lee’s just noted in comments, Geoff Hoon has now resigned from the cabinet, a long overdue development.
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'Unity' is a regular contributor to Liberal Conspiracy. He also blogs at Ministry of Truth.
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Reader comments
‘Lord Sugar’ – sounds like something out of sexploitation film. Besides, isn’t this ‘Comrade Digby’ all over again?
Maybe, maybe not.
Unlike Digby, Sugar’s been consistently onside with New Labour throughout.
“Crucially John Hutton”
So you mean that’a it for Brown?
Guardian newsflash: Hutton’s resigned as Defence secretary…no more news yet (but then I’m not on Twitter)
I think he’s messed up.
He should have made Lorraine Kelly Home Secretary.
Sugar has indeed long been a Labour supporter – and certain elements in the party were trying to draft him to run for Mayor of London in 2012 (though he wasn’t interested).
On the Hutton front, the Beeb is asking whether he gave Brown advance notice of his intention to quit – and if not, will this leave a hole that Brown can’t fill today. If he did, I wonder if that’s what Brown was meeting with John Reid about.
Given the attribution to Hutton of the famous comments about GB being an f-ing disaster, his expression of support for Brown is a major missed opportunity for those trying to get the PM out.
It seems that the rebels are fast running out of Cabinet cards to play. David Miliband and/or Alan Johnson could almost certainly decide the PM’s fate were they to choose too – and both have chosen that he should stay, as Nick Robinson
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/nickrobinson/2009/06/three_extraordi.html
Unity, Gregg – I stand corrected (maybe ity’s the whole ‘get some one famous to be a Tsar’ approach that grates…I’m half-expecting Peaches Geldof to be brought in to help with ‘da yoof’)
Sunder:
Both Johnson and Miliband have leadership ambitions and as such both will extremely mindful of the fate of Sejanus, hence their unwillingness to wield the knife or even be counted amongst the plotters.
“Fast running out of cards to play”!!!
That’s because so many people have quite already. ..
Cilla Black for CLG!
#11 – didn’t CIlla, or a doppelganger, just quit DCLG?
Unity, Prescott’s may be broadly right, but I’d have more sympathy if it wasn’t for the ‘Well, in my day…’ tone and the fact that the whole centralised approach was a key part of New Labour in the first place.
[12] Don’t. I’ve now got a mental image of Hazel Blears singing, which has led on to the thought of one of these disgraced ex-ministers getting rehabbed (say the year after next) via one of those celebrity programmes…
Life is full, full of surprises
#14 My recurring nightmare is the Division Belles popping up on Newsnight in full costume….
@16 well they had that bloody gimp dress up as a cowboy to shoot cans on BBC didnt they
[12] Don’t. I’ve now got a mental image of Hazel Blears singing, which has led on to the thought of one of these disgraced ex-ministers getting rehabbed (say the year after next) via one of those celebrity programmes…
Mike – I’m sure there was a clip of Blears tap-dancing in a flapper dress on a chorus line on TV last night (the ‘Division Belles’?)
‘Don’t have nightmares,’ as Nick Ross would say
How can someone post about the Labour party under the name Unity? Don’t you risk death by iront.
So… at this stage, the remaining gaps seem to be:
Health;
Defence;
DIAS (will this still exist?);
and Chief Sec to the Treasury;
….assuming that remaining Cabinet ministers still stay (I’m in mild shock to find that Hoon’s still in the Cabinet – I’d assumed he’d be fired for being useless a couple of years ago).
Seany, if that was the criteria for being fired from the cabinet, they would have all been fired by now, Brown included!
Is it me or has Gordon Brown made the most boring choices ever? Last night everyone was excited about what would happen next, who would resign, how soon Brown will go. Since then the spineless shites in his cabinet, the likes of Miliband the Elder and Burnham, have pledged their allegiance to Brown. The revolt is over. Has Brown played us all? He’s essentially managed to get rid of everyone who would’ve moved against him.
#22 I suspect one real possibility is that Labour’s share of the vote will collapse to 18-19% and that letter of no confidence will have 100 or so signatures on it… and despite that, Brown will simply refuse to react to it and trundle on.
I suspect it’ll take a formal vote of no confidence (not going to happen) or a stalking horse challenge (Purnell would be the obvious candidate) to shift him. Anyone got chapter and verse on leadership challenge procedures?
If he does hang on part the next week, Labour are buggered in the GE but he’ll probably enjoy Cabinet a lot more without Blears and Purnell – and hopefully, Johnson will quietly ditch ID cards… Absolutely no hope of voting reform under Brown, alas, and no hope of it under a Tory majority government either. Bah.
Bob Ainsworth is the new Defence Sec. – we really are on to low-profile names now (although that’s not necessarily a bad thing)…
Ainsworth is the current Armed Forces Minister and I would presume his appointment reflects the wishes of the MOD and the military’s top brass for continuity.
By and large, what matters to the military is that they have minister they perceive to be supportive not necessarily one with a high profile, so I wouldn’t read too much into that appointment.
A thought: Balls for Health? Sorry Ed Balls for Health?
[apologies]
Ainsworth will do that job proud. I base this on his moustache.
It’s a cracker, isn’t it? I’m trying to remember the last ‘tache in Cabinet – had Mandy’ got rid of his by 1997?
Hoon has resigned.
Good…
I’m stoked that four of my least favourite people have left government.
On the flip side I think it’s obvious why these Labour councils have been lost, abandonment of their key principles…but how the hell do these people think the Tories are going to help them out in their local area if they are working class and unemployed? Pushing through their work for welfare ideas, greater council taxes? I can’t fathom the choices made here.
Hoon out – excellent. It’s looking a lot less Blairy in the cabinet, although Mandy’s still there, of course. I’ve got a bad feeling about Burnham at Health, though…
#31Being ultra-optimistic, in a way, Tories winning lots of working-class areas now might be good news for Labour and the Lib Dems. A short reminder of how horrible the Tories are when in power might tilt a few voters away from them in 11 months.
That’s trying to look at things ‘glass-a-quarter-full’, of course – and I doubt 11 months will be long enough for some of their true-blue colours to come out…
Guardian local election Twitterfeed has this:
Lord Toby Jug (Monster Raving Loony) beat Lab into 4th in St Ives, Cambs. At least he could probably organise a p**s up in a brewery
The last time the Loonies did something similar was in a Parliamentary bye-election in Bootle when they beat the rump SDP.
32. The danger is that the Tories can front load a whole lot of moves locally. With a huge share of national councils they could spend the next year essentially throwing money at residents. They’d pay for it later, but with only a year to go they have an opportunity to dazzle and deceive.
@34
I think it s a bit rich to accuse Tory Councils of throwing money they don’t have at voters for a year in order to deliver the GE for David Cameron.
I agree that it is possible, but I am bound to say that the Labour government has been indulging in a bit of spending-huge-amounts-of-public-money-with-no-idea-how-to-pay-it-back of late.
To accuse the Tories (without any evidence) of plotting to spend their way to victory when Labour has already borrowed so much that the UK’s credit rating was recently downgraded. Well, if it was a Labour minister making the accusation, one might be tempted to call them a hypocrite
“To accuse the Tories ”
Oh stop having a huff and learn to read, George. I said “The danger”, it’s clearly a thought about the possibility of such power.
Caroline Flint has quit (possibly for a modelling career) and so has Tony McNulty (possibly not). Mandelson to get a fancy new title, Dark Lord of the Si— sorry, ‘First Secretary of State’
@36 Suggesting its a danger due to the tories gaining power only makes sense if you think its more of a risk than when labour was in power. Also, it doesn’t really make any sense- why would they do that? They would be better off not bothering and blaming everything on Govt, and calling for change.
(33): I fear we have spent too much time worrying about the BNP while the Monster Raving Loony Party have been massing support in the shadows.
Or maybe not 
Hey, I didn’t know this site did proper smileys – I thought those using them had some funky software I don’t!
“Suggesting its a danger due to the tories gaining power only makes sense if you think its more of a risk than when labour was in power.”
Read as much in to it as you want, I hadn’t given any thought to when Labour was in power, though the same danger WOULD apply when Labour got their huge ownership of councils in 96. If you mean is it more of a risk than when Labour had their measly amount of control? Then yes, of course, more power means more opportunity to make it something that can be abused.
I was merely responding to the idea that the Tories could or would legitimately screw things up in a year for those that have just voted for them; I also don’t believe that it’s much risk of what you’re saying about “blaming the government” either, since they have controlled a significant number of councils for at least as long as the last election.
I’m not sure I understand your point. Tory councils will borrow and spend huge amounts to win votes? Well, they don’t appear to need to do that- thats why they are tory councils after all. Would voters really associate this with the council anyway? Despite not supporting labour I am sure plenty of perfectly fine councillors lost on national issues today. Plus, y’know, its just something you made up out of whole cloth with no reason at all to think its true. So all in all I think its a silly claim.
They could blame the national government regardless of anything because as today illustrates many/most people vote on national issues and don’t really know about their local council or its powers.
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