Darren Jones given new role as Keir Starmer revamps No 10 team | UK News

Darren Jones has been given a key No 10 role by Sir Keir Starmer, as the prime minister shakes up his Downing Street team as Parliament returns.

Jones, who has spent the last year as the chief secretary to the Treasury, has been appointed to the new role of chief secretary to the Prime Minister.

He will be replaced at the Treasury by James Murray, previously the exchequer secretary at the department, whose role will in turn be filled by Dan Tomlinson, an economist who was first elected as a Labour MP at last year’s general election.

One of Sir Keir’s communications directors, James Lyons, is also leaving after less than a year, having been appointed in October.

It comes after a difficult summer for the government, with the news agenda dominated by asylum and migration, amid a record number of small boat crossings so far this year.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced new applications for a scheme allowing refugees to bring their family members to the UK would be suspended, as ministers try to regain the initiative on the issue.

Speaking to Radio 5 Live, Sir Keir said his staff shake-up would make the centre of government “more powerful” and allow him to drive through his priorities.

Sir Keir said the changes were about allowing the government to move into “phase two”, after spending Labour’s first year in power “fixing the foundations” of the British state.

Appointing an MP like Jones to a backroom role in Downing Street is unusual but has been done before, with Boris Johnson appointing an MP, Steve Barclay, as his chief of staff for five months in 2022.

Jones has quickly risen through the ranks since he was first elected as the MP for Bristol North West in 2017.

He has been the chancellor’s deputy since Labour came to power and led the spending review in June, shaping government funding for the next five years.

Jones will still attend cabinet, and a wider reshuffle of cabinet-level ministers is not expected.

The No 10 communications team is also being shaken up, with fresh economic expertise also brought in.

Lyons had been in charge of No 10’s communications strategy, sharing the role with Steph Driver, who stays in place.

Monday’s revamp is not the first attempt Sir Keir has made to reset the narrative since taking power in July last year.

The departure of his chief of staff Sue Gray last October was followed by communications director Matthew Doyle leaving in March.

The revealed last week that a key aide to Sir Keir, his principal private secretary Nin Pandit, was moving to a policy role in No 10.

A former deputy governor of the Bank of England, Baroness Minouche Shafik, has also been hired as the prime minister’s economic adviser.

A Downing Street spokesman said these backroom moves would “support the government to go further and faster in driving economic growth and raising living standards for all”.

However, Conservative Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake likened the shake-up to “firefighters arguing about the hose whilst the house burns down”.

“This chaotic reshuffle shows a Downing Street in crisis – totally distracted from fixing the damage they’ve done to the economy, jobs and small businesses,” he added.