Rishi Sunak bottles reshuffle in face of demands to sack top Tories
Rishi Sunak responds to by-election results
Rishi Sunak will not conduct a reshuffle of his top Cabinet Ministers today, the Express understands.
The Prime Minister had been rumoured to be mulling a shake-up of his Cabinet as a way to distract from expected by-election drubbings, however the surprise victory in Uxbridge may have dissuaded him from needing to conduct one.
Rumours about a reshuffle this week surfaced a few days ago, following both a story in The Sun and Ben Wallace claiming a senior civil servant told him they were expecting one.
Mr Sunak will now likely shake up his top team in September, ahead of the Conservative Party conference both to re-stamp his authority in Government and allow his new secretaries of state to introduce themselves to party members at the October conference in Manchester.
This morning the Express revealed demands by Tory MPs for Mr Sunak to sack two of his most senior Cabinet ministers amid demands for a ‘complete overhaul’ of his Government.
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Michael Gove and Jeremy Hunt, who have both been in Cabinet since David Cameron was Prime Minister, are said to be the top targets for Tory MPs fed up of green policies and tax rises.
A senior former minister said: “We’ve still got over a year to turn this around, but if we want optimism and conservatism that means clearing out people like Michael Gove and Jeremy Hunt”.
“They’ve spent so many years pretending to be Conservatives whilst basically being useful idiots for the statist Whitehall blob.”
Ben Wallace’s confirmed departure means he has a large hole to fill at the top of Government, as well as wanting to promote key allies.
Mr Sunak retained a number of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss’s supporters in top roles to ensure party unity.
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While Penny Mordaunt and Tom Tugendhat have both been rumoured for the Defence gig, it’s also though Mr Sunak may prefer to install loyalist penny-counter John Glen to the job.
Mr Glen is currently Chief Secretary to the Treasury, but his constituency of Salisbury also includes a number of key army bases.
Mr Glen’s departure would also free up a key Treasury role for a younger Sunak ally, with his former Special Advisor Claire Coutinho rumoured to be in the running.
Instead of reshuffling his Cabinet, Mr Sunak has made a last-minute trip to Uxbridge, to conduct a victory tour with his candidate Steve Tuckwell.
They were joined by the Tories’ newly selected London mayoral candidate Susan Hall.
Mr Sunak said the Tories’ by-election victory in Uxbridge and South Ruislip shows the next general election is not “a done deal”.
The Prime Minister said: “By-elections, midterms for an incumbent government, are always difficult. They rarely win them.
“The message I take away is that we’ve got to double down, stick to our plan and deliver for people. That’s what I heard when I was out on the doorsteps and that’s what we’re going to do.
“We’re going to work incredibly hard to deliver on our five priorities and earn people’s trust for the next election.”
It’s thought Sir Keir Starmer may conduct a large reshuffle of his own shadow cabinet next week.
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