Sir Keir Starmer has announced a shake-up of his team in Downing Street as he seeks to reset his premiership after a difficult first year in office.
Darren Jones, who was serving as the chief secretary to the Treasury, has been put in charge of the day-to-day delivery of the prime minister’s priorities.
It is a new senior role in which he will work across government to “drive forward progress in key policy areas”, responding directly to the PM, Number 10 said.
Mr Jones has long been seen as a rising star of the Labour Party, rising to prominence in 2021 as chair of the business select committee, when he made a name for himself holding business leaders to account.
He has previously described Tony Blair as his political hero and is understood to have privately urged the government to be more radical.
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James Murray, who was the exchequer secretary, has been promoted to Mr Jones’s former role – essentially the deputy to Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
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Dan Tomlinson, a new MP from the 2024 intake who was the government’s “growth mission champion”, will replace Mr Murray.
Both Mr Murray and Mr Jones will attend cabinet.
Number 10 said the shake up is intended to “bolster” its operations to mark a new term in parliament as it focuses on its next phase of its domestic agenda – delivering on the “Plan for Change”.
Economist Baroness Minouche Shafik will also take on a new senior role in Downing Street, as chief economic adviser.
Tim Allan, a former adviser to Tony Blair, has been appointed as the government’s Executive Director of Communications.
James Lyons, the director of strategic communications for Number 10, has now left his job.
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