Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Reshuffle.
Reshuffle
The Prime Minster’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) told journalists that he didn’t have anything to say about further ministerial appointments at that stage, but journalists could rest assured that they would be informed. The PMOS said that contrary to some of the predictions being made, this was not going to be a massive reshuffle with a very large new cast list. There would be changes and obviously when you made changes in government each change had consequentionals, so it would take a little time.
The PMOS told journalists that John Reid had visited the walk-in centre in Soho which was an excellent example of Primary Care reform and was a strong signal as to how Dr. Reid planned to continue the path of reform Laid out by his predecessor.
Asked for more information on the political thinking behind the middle-rank reshuffle the PMOS said it would be best to wait until we knew what the appointments were. Asked to consider the needs of journalists who had to fill the information vacuum in the meantime the PMOS said that without wishing to sound to peevish, that was their problem rather than his. In his experience they had the skills.
Asked for a response to the criticisms of the appointment of John Reid as Health Secretary given that he would be responsible for making decisions that would not affect his own constituency given health was devolved, the PMOS said that Dr. Reid had explained this morning the nature of the devolution settlement and the fact that all members of this house at Westminster were elected equally meant there was no difference between them. The central point however was that with every job in Government what mattered to the Prime Minister was that he appointed the person he thought could best do that job and the people of this country would judge John Reid against what he delivered for them. The Prime Minister was confident given Dr. Reid’s track record that he was the right man for the job. The PMOS said he didn’t think members of the public up and down the country were particularly concerned about what part of the United Kingdom John Reid came from. What they were concerned about was whether he had the necessary abilities to do the job and the Prime Minister believed that he did and that would be proven over time.
Asked whether John Reid’s constituents would be aggrieved that having elected Dr. Reid to Westminster to represent them he was now doing a job which had nothing to with them the PMOS said that he couldn’t speak for Dr. Reid’s constituents, all he could do was explain the reasoning behind that appointment. We had a different constitutional settlement now that we had a Parliament in Scotland. The Prime Minister did not believe that should preclude people from North of the border with talent from taking on posts within the Cabinet, which covered areas, which were devolved.
Asked why there hadn’t been a statement in the House given the significance of the changes the PMOS said that the dynamic of reshuffles meant inevitably they were handled in a certain way. Journalists could take it as read that when it came to setting out the necessary White Papers and so forth in relation to the judicial issues there would be the fullest possible debate in Parliament. The PMOS clarified for journalists in the light of some of the reporting that the positions of Secretary of State for Scotland and Secretary of State for Wales remained and Alastair Darling and Peter Hain would fill them respectively. They had not been abolished and there was no diminution of those roles. What had changed was that as a result of the success of devolution, they were no longer separate jobs as such. But the ministers kept their responsibilities in addition to their other duties but the central point was that Wales and Scotland would be represented in the Commons and at Cabinet by a Secretary of State. Obviously as devolution took hold and time moved forward there would have to be adjustments in terms of the machinery of government down in London. That was what we had seen in respect of the coalescence of these three posts under one Permanent Secretary and one Department.
Asked if the Prime Minister had any sympathy for concerns that the abolition of the Lord Chancellor’s job and changes to the machinery surrounding that, should have been subject to consultation before the decision was taken the PMOS said that the Prime Minister believed that the changes that had been announced were radical, progressive reforms. There would be consultation in terms of the Supreme Court and changes to judicial appointments as we spelt out yesterday. Clearly in relation to the adjustments made in respect of the abolition of the role of Lord Chancellor again that could only happen through statute. So pro tem that would continue as Lord Falconer had explained. What was most important and what was driving the changes was that we could have a coherent a legal system where the judiciary and the executive were separated in the manner Lord Falconer had explained this morning. He also thought people understood that given we were dealing with reshuffle issues there were limits to how widely they could be discussed in advance.
Asked how Alastair Darling would divide his time between his role as Scottish Secretary and Transport Secretary and whether this meant Transport was no longer a full time job the PMOS said that the Prime Minister believed that Alastair Darling was a very talented Secretary of State who had shown a significant ability to do big jobs, for example at the Department of Work and Pensions. The PMOS said he couldn’t give a precise breakdown of Alastair Darling’s schedule and it would be wrong to do so but clearly the Prime Minister believed these two roles could be combined now devolution was up and running. Transport was obviously a very important issue and nobody was pretending otherwise, but it was important to remember that the Transport job has since 1997 been linked with other portfolios, so it was not unprecedented. Questioned further on whether the post would remain with Alastair Darling if he moved away from Transport the PMOS said that one of the reasons Alastair Darling was made Secretary of State for Scotland was that he was Scottish. Asked to clarify once again whether Transport no longer needed a dedicated Secretary of State the PMOS repeated that the central point was that we had a new constitutional settlement and that would lead to changes and alterations in the make up of government at Westminster and the Prime Minister has taken the decision for the reasons that if you had a Scottish Parliament you now no longer needed a dedicated Secretary of State doing that job alone. Questioned further the PMOS said that it didn’t mean Alastair Darling wouldn’t be putting enormous amounts of energy into making progress on Transport or that there wouldn’t be a team taking forward the whole transport agenda. Asked why Transport didn’t appear to be as important as it had been the PMOS said that no one was saying that Transport was anything other then very important and that was reflected in the extra funding that is going into Transport. We recognise that the changes that everybody wanted to see were going to take time, the reasons for that were clear. The Prime Minister had to look across the piece in terms of making these judgements and he had reached the decisions he’d reached for the reasons given. The changing nature of our constitution meant that adjustments had to be made over time. Asked if he was saying that Alastair Darling, Peter Hain and Helen Liddell didn’t have enough to do the PMOS said that what he was saying was that was in respect of Wales and Scotland, given the progress of time in relation to devolution was that these were no longer full-time jobs so they were being combined with other roles. In respect of Transport there was clearly a big job to be done, nobody was under any illusion about that. Alastair Darling would continue to have a team under him working hard on issues and challenges such as the decades of under investment and the fragmentation of the railways, which the government was trying to address. The Prime Minister believed that it is sensible looking across the board at the Cabinet that Alastair Darling took on the functions of Scottish Secretary in addition. He thought it was quite straightforward.
Asked whether Lord Falconer should be given the job, given his close relationship with the Prime Minister and the fact that he owed everything to his friendship the PMOS said that the question that was always uppermost in the Prime Minister’s mind when he was considering who should be appointed to which job was who had the best talents to make a success of it. Lord Falconer was a reformer who understood the issues from top to bottom and who the Prime Minister believed would bring significant energy to this important area of work.
Asked who the civil servants in the Scottish and Welsh offices would answer to, the PMOS said that they would come under a single Permanent Secretary Sir Hadyn Phillips but would work to their respective secretaries of state. Asked if the Permanent Secretary would be answerable to Lord Falconer the PMOS said he would.
Asked why the staff at the Scotland office hadn’t been informed of the changes the PMOS said that these issues would be made clear in the fullness of time. Asked what Lord Falconer’s role in relation to Scotland and Wales would be, given the amalgamation of the two departments within his department the PMOS said that the answer to that would be, very little. The PMOS said that all that was happening was that the staff were coming together under one Permanent Secretary at a new Department for Constitutional Affairs where there were Secretary’s of State who had different responsibilities within that.
Asked if the devolution of British regions project would go to the new department the PMOS said he believed that it would remain as part of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. Obviously that linked into the government agenda.
Asked why the announcements of the changes had not been as detailed as they might have been in the light of Peter Hain’s comments this morning the PMOS said that inevitably he did not have the answer to every question immediately and some things had been a little hazy. Questioned further the PMOS said that he wasn’t going to hide from journalists that these were very big changes in terms of the judiciary. But the idea that at 5.30 the Prime Minister had got out a piece of paper and sketched them out was totally absurd, obviously a lot of thought had been given to this. These were fundamental changes that had been carefully thought through
Questioned as to whether there would remain two places smaller the PMOS said that if there were any further machinery of government changes then they would be informed, but the cabinet would remain as it was announced yesterday. Asked if Peter Hain and Alastair Darling would be answerable to Lord Falconer the PMOS said that since they were all Cabinet Ministers they would all carry equal weight.
Questioned as to the absence of a West Midlands MP in Cabinet for the first time in decades the PMOS said he didn’t have a geographical breakdown as to which parts of the country were represented in this cabinet as compared to others. Clearly in any Cabinet there would always be parts of the country which would not be represented. That was every bit as true of other regions in the past.
Asked if there would ultimately be a Cabinet position responsible for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland the PMOS said that we were halfway through a reshuffle this year, with machinery of Government changes he thought we ought to take one at a time.
Asked how the policy was formed the PMOS said that in terms of reshuffles and changes in the machinery of government these were clearly matters for the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister would obviously discuss changes with Cabinet colleagues as appropriate but we were not in the business of giving detailed information on whom he spoke to and what he discussed. Journalists could take it that these issues have been discussed in government but not at full Cabinet for pretty obvious reasons.
Asked what the point of having separate Secretaries of State for Scotland and Wales the PMOS said that the Prime Minister believed it was important that Scotland and Wales continue to have a voice at the Cabinet table and in Parliament. The PMOS said he didn’t doubt there were still some detailed questions to be answered in relation to the new department but what we were seeing here was change being made as a result of constitutional reform that was bedded in and the Prime Minister’s desire to see more of it that he believed would lead to greater coherence in the justice system. People could criticise that if they wished to, but the Prime Minister believed that this was progressive radical reform which was delivering real improvements to be people’s lives in Scotland and Wales and consequently was leading to adjustments in terms of the machinery of government at Westminster. Similarly the changes in respect of the judiciary the Prime Minister made no apologies for those changes whatsoever, he believed that they were absolutely the right thing to do and that Lord Falconer was absolutely the right person to take them forward.
Asked why there were so many unanswered questions about the changes the PMOS said that the questions he couldn’t answer related to some of the more detailed staffing and accommodation issues, but in relation to the structures within government he thought it was pretty clear and that he had answered the questions.
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