Non-shuffle reshuffle: What to make of Theresa May’s new Cabinet

The top posts

The big beasts are going nowhere. That was the message from Friday evening’s announcement of the top government posts. The Prime Minister had lost the ability to replace Chancellor Philip Hammond with a more congenial colleague. Lesson one is that the marginalisation of the Treasury, so apparent from the autumn is over – for now. But she has left the Brexit Three – David Davis, Boris Johnson and Liam Fox – in place.

The Sunday surprise was the creation of a new big beast, with the elevation of Damian Green to First Secretary of State, a beefed-up Ben Gummer/Oliver Letwin role, chairing committees, managing relations with the devolved administrations on Brexit and, possibly most importantly, being a friend of the Prime Minister. Theresa May has revived his career – now his role is to return the compliment and sustain her in her hours and maybe months of need. He could turn into the sort of prime ministerial protector and enforcer that Margaret Thatcher had in William Whitelaw and that John Major had in John Wakeham and Michael Heseltine.

But the interesting question is whether Green will feel he has licence to use his new role to push any changed policy positions. This expanded role won’t leave much bandwidth for the other roles that have accreted to Cabinet Office ministers in recent years on building civil service capability.  

The return of Gove, promotions and demotions

Other surprises included the return of Michael Gove, the promotion of David Lidington and David Gauke, and the demotion of Andrea Leadsom and Liz Truss.

Gove to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is an interesting move; it’s rare for Defra to get a big hitter – but it faces some of the biggest Brexit challenges. If the UK ends up with an option that allows it to negotiate its own free trade deals, agricultural subsidies will be in the frontline. Repatriating trade policy means taking responsibility for a whole range of choices where for the last 40 years the UK could hide behind the “Commission and the French”. It also means managing some of the most effective lobbyists and stakeholders in the business and dealing with the devolved administrations. Gove will be a key player in trying to preserve the UK single market through what David Davis calls “common frameworks”.

Liz Truss’s replacement by David Lidington as Justice Secretary appears welcomed by the lawyers who felt she never gripped her brief and was too slow to defend them over the Article 50 case. Her move will be seen as a demotion – one of two women moved out of the Cabinet – even though, at a time when public finances are so tight and public services are showing the strain, the Chief Secretary role needed reinforcing to help the Government deliver on spending and performance, as we argued last week. That is even more true with the Chancellor being preoccupied by Brexit.

David Gauke gets his reward (finally) for solidly defending the Government, with his move to the Department for Work and Pensions – but that represents yet more instability in a department (four secretaries of state in less than 15 months) where knowledge of detail is crucial.

The downgrading of the Leader of the House of Commons role – and parking Andrea Leadsom there – seems to ignore just how critical the business managers are to managing a minority government. Both she and Gavin Williamson have sub-Cabinet status, yet they are critical to managing what remains the most challenging legislative programme a parliament will have seen. With the clock ticking down for Brexit, there is a lot of legislation that has to get on the statute book to avoid a legal hiatus.  

A final key player is the one with no seat in Parliament – and no place on the Cabinet. But Ruth Davidson has already shown that she is willing to use her status as the deliverer of Conservative success in Scotland to influence what the Government does and how it does it.  

Junior posts

Today we see the junior ministerial appointments. Continuity suggests that, as far as possible, the Prime Minister should minimise changes.

And then her new Cabinet can get back to something very different to the business as usual it may have expected at 9.59pm last Thursday.

Follow our live-blog for the latest updates on the government formation.