There are internal options. MPs credit Starmer\u2019s Political Director Amy Richards with improving fractured relationships with the Labour back benches. And one of Starmer\u2019s longest-serving aides, his former Director of Communications Ben Nunn, is only next door \u2014 working as chief of staff to Chancellor Rachel Reeves in 11 Downing Street.<\/p>\n
Others had mooted Darren Jones, the Cabinet minister who as Starmer\u2019s chief secretary is charged with solving problems across government. But Jones has advised Starmer that the chief of staff should be a backroom special adviser, not an elected politician, said a ninth person with knowledge of talks in No. 10.<\/p>\n
Some people who have worked with Starmer say he finds personnel decisions difficult and trying to guess his choice is a fool\u2019s game. \u201cI don\u2019t think anyone knows for sure,\u201d said one person who speaks regularly to No. 10. \u201cIt\u2019s up to the PM.\u201d<\/p>\n
Things carry on<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Starmer\u2019s allies insist that No. 10 is already evolving.<\/p>\n
The prime minister has become more willing to pick fights with opposing parties, is more strident about his achievements and his desire to get closer to the EU, and has said he will listen more to his MPs\u2019 concerns about a challenge from the left.<\/p>\n
Many of Downing Street\u2019s top roles are also now held by women, after long-running complaints from some aides about a \u201cboys\u2019 club\u201d culture in government. The presentation of McSweeney as an all-knowing Svengali \u2014 both by some allies and in the media \u2014 long frustrated many aides who argued it gave one man too much credit and overlooked other members of Starmer\u2019s team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are internal options. MPs credit Starmer\u2019s Political Director Amy Richards with improving fractured relationships with the Labour…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[126],"tags":[10412,20044,10413,2420,20045,1065,245,34,264,6102,384,6609,1436,17,1764,10415],"class_list":{"0":"post-28983","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-keir-starmer","8":"tag-angela-rayner","9":"tag-antonia-romeo","10":"tag-british-politics","11":"tag-communications","12":"tag-darren-jones","13":"tag-elections","14":"tag-france","15":"tag-iran","16":"tag-keir-starmer","17":"tag-peter-mandelson","18":"tag-rachel-reeves","19":"tag-tony-blair","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-war-in-iran","23":"tag-wes-streeting"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116415898724166777","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}