Keir Starmer's reshuffle reveals his priorities | Politics

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The New Statesman

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🗓️ 1 September 2025

⏱️ 19 minutes

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Summary

Who's in, who's out - and why?

Keir Starmer has reshuffled the treasury team and some key parliamentary staff, creating a new "Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister" role and restructuring the government's communication department.

The changes indicate a renewed focus for the government, putting economic issues front-and-centre of operations ahead of the upcoming budget.

The moves also suggest a change of direction in some areas, with leading proponents of the disastrous Winter Fuel Allowance repeal picking up their P45s.

Rachel Cunliffe and Megan Kenyon join Anoosh Chakelian to discuss what can we learn from this reshuffle.

LISTEN NEXT: What the Treasury reshuffle reveals about the budget

READ: Will Keir Starmer's mini-reshuffle make a difference?

Host: Anoosh Chakelian

Guest: Megan Kenyon

Guest: Rachel Cunliffe

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The New Statesman.
0:05.8	It's all change in Kirstama's inner circle.
0:08.9	Today's mini reshuffle reveals the PM's priorities as we head towards the budget.
0:12.8	So who's in, who's out, and why?
0:15.3	I'm Anusha Kellyan and this is the New Statesman podcast.
0:18.5	Hi, both of you.
0:19.1	It's the first day of the new parliamentary term.
0:22.1	Hello, welcome back. Yeah, welcome back. MPs like school children around the country are returning to the classroom or the commons, which is a lot more unruly than a classroom.
0:31.6	It's a lot like a classroom in many ways.
0:34.3	And in the case of the Labour Party, there is a new set of appointments for junior ministers and people in the back office.
0:42.9	It's being referred to as a mini reshuffle, but it does in fact reveal quite a lot about Kiyosama's priorities for his government.
0:49.2	I'm joined by Megan Kenyon, the new statesman's new politics correspondent and associate political editor, Rachel Cunliff.
0:55.2	Hello. Hello. Hello. Congratulations, Megan, on your new role. Thank you. Thank you. It's very
0:59.0	exciting. Yeah. So you'll be on the podcast much more now with this new position, which is great.
1:03.7	And you wrote this morning's morning call newsletter, which everyone should subscribe to, on these new
1:08.6	appointments. Can you give us a bit of a rundown on who the major
1:11.8	figures are that stood out to you? Yeah. So it was a reshuffle essentially of a few members of
1:18.4	the Treasury team, one of whom was Darren Jones, who was Chief Secretary to the Treasury,
1:23.4	who has now gone into the Cabinet Office to be chief secretary to the prime minister.
1:32.7	And replacing him in the treasury is James Murray, who was ex-JECA's secretary.
1:33.9	That's really hard to say.
1:37.2	And replacing James Murray is Dan Thomanson.
	...

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