Monday 7 October 2013

Reshuffle live blog....

13.20 We hear that Rachel Reeves is on her way to Ed's office and will be promoted. Widely tipped to get Liam Byrne's job, leaks are tightly controlled among Labour contacts today, so we'll have to wait and see.

13.21 I'm hearing Esther McVey has been promoted to Minister for Employment (Hoban's job) Stunning that someone so incompetent should be promoted but there we are. This leaves Hoban floating - might he get IDS job? It would certainly be good for us welfare warriors if so (though "good" clearly a very loose definition.....

13.24 I hear Hoban has been sacked!! Very surprised and Mike Penning is being moved across from Northern Ireland. Know nothing about him as yet, will update on all new appointments as soon as I can

13.29 If Hoban has indeed been sacked, I would expect some rather more robust criticism from him on the whole WCA mess. Depending of course on where he ends up. Sacking him from DWP can only mean he took a line the gov don't approve of. Fingers crossed.

13.32 Apparently Penning is getting Minister for people with Disabilities. Quote "Not expecting any changes at cabinet level except for Scotland" which would mean IDS keeping his job :((((

14.10 Well, that seems to be that little flurry out of the way. Labour List seem to think all the LAbour moves could be announced together later. Incredibly tight ship if so. I'm going to watch the Waltons and pretend the world is still a nice place til we hear more....

14.25 Helen Grant gets equalities, though to be fair, this portfolio has barely troubled us so far....

14.51 These really are only rumours, Labour are keeping an incredibly tight ship, but rumour has it Ivan Lewis, Twigg AND Byrne could all be going, as Labour List say, that would be quite the "Blairite cull"

15.37 OK Byrne's definitely gone, we think Reeves did get it, will update ASAP....

15.56 Burnham definitely staying at health thank goodness.

16.48 And to complete the incredibly tight Labour reshuffle, here's the full list - perhaps a reshuffle that will come to be known as the "Bonfire of the Blairites" http://labourlist.org/2013/10/labours-new-shadow-cabinet-in-full/

As expected, Rachel Reeves got DWP

Rachel Reeves is a rising star in Ed Miliband’s team. Untainted with associations with either the Blairites OR the Brownites, she’s seen as a safe pair of hands in both media situations and on policy. As one of Ed’s favourites and a woman, her appointment to shadow Secretary of State for DWP is a truly heady promotion. It puts a woman in charge of another major portfolio – one traditionally reserved for right wing (male) hawks.

If Ed Miliband was keen on following a “business as usual” path, the job would almost certainly have stayed with Byrne or gone to another prominent welfare hawk and Blairite. The Conservatives have made much of their intention to paint Labour as “soft on scroungers” at the next election and the safe move would have been to keep a right-of-centre hardliner in place. A move away from this very much signals a fresh start. Reeves can be her own woman and we can be fairly sure her approach will be an approach Ed approves of.

She supported Ed in the leadership elections and her appointment signifies that whichever way the wind ends up blowing, the DWP brief is extraordinarily important to Ed. This can only be good news for us.

**Obviously the post of shadow for disabilities is way too unimportant to announce. Still, what did we expect eh?

8 comments:

  1. Peter Principle at work, just heard McVey described on world at one as sensitive FFS different definition of word as I know it it feeds into demographic, woman Liverpudlian thick

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  2. Is Mike Penning getting Us Lot?

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  3. Damn there was rumour Mike Pennington was replacing IDS, they shouldn't get our hopes up like that.

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  4. hoban was a weak link for the consertive party as he did try to listen to those like sue albeit was way to late to be of any use for change

    Esther McVey was never the right person to be part of a welfare team and neither is IDS but having looked at the various contenders to take over from Esther none of them are

    The right person needs to have a good solid grounding in illness and disability a person that instinctively understands their needs and the needs of cares’ a person who knows of this blog for example’ a person of not only understanding but one of solid commitment to improve their lives a person that will remove the guilt they feel so that they don’t feel a burden on society but a valued member of it

    somone like myself in what is a very simple undertaking


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  5. Hoban wasn't sacked for disloyalty; he was sacked because he was simply bad at the job. As avoidant as Maria Miller was when she was MfDP, but without being able to match her brains(frequently underestimated by media ignorati; Quentin Letts was especially mean but was talking out his arse).

    McVey is only promoted in a 'sort of' way because Employment Minister is a MoS whilst MfDP is an under-parliamentary secretary. She's moved to employment because she does not have greater responsibilities but has performed better than Hoban did media-wise and in engaging with the public.

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  6. Rachel Reeves isn't just a safe pair of hands but can master the brief of the DWP and reasonably quickly. That's probably the most important element here. The shambles of the DWP reforms needs a forensic kicking to take apart the IDS position (Liam Byrne greatest failing).

    There needs to be cross-working between Reeves, Andy Burnham & Liz Kendall (possibly Gloria De Piero as well) in order to develop a coherent policy strategy as these feed into each other.

    The parliamentary interplay between IDS and Reeves should be interesting to watch.

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  7. the bottom line is that welfare reform is a very basic undertaking of which anyone with common sense and a degree fairness and understanding could muster

    this is not rocket science this is just a very straight forward job for someone like myself on his own to undertake with no fuss just a basic natural understanding of how people live especially the sick and disabled live and to implement some changes that will enhance their lives and not like at the present time to kill them through stress

    if Rachel Reeves is unsure of how to get to grips with welfare reform in going forward she only has to ask the likes of myself and a quick trip to my house would pay hansom dividends at the next election just the two of us. As i say it's all very simple if that's your goal BUT IF YOU WONT IT COMPLEXED THEN I'M NOT YOUR MAN LOOK ELSEWHERE

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