Downing Street Personnel Changes Expected After Starmer Blames Staff for Failures – Guido Fawkes

EXC: Downing Street Personnel Changes Expected After Starmer Blames Staff for Failures

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Appetite for changes to Downing Street’s personnel has grown over the weekend. A weekend in which Starmer pleaded that he has not in fact been in charge…

The PM ‘dropped a Baldwin‘ on Friday and his hagiographer took pains to spell out that Starmer hated 1. His Rose Garden speech, 2. His Island of Strangers remark, 3. Briefings in Westminster, and that he regretted most of the strident stunts executed by his team. That and a subsequent Sunday Times interview have not gone down well inside government…

The PM also claimed to be too distracted by the Middle East to pay attention to what was going on at home. One Downing Street source tells Guido there is serious consternation inside and the interviews have gone done very badly with SpAds: “he basically blamed us all for allowing him to make poor decisions. That’s not leadership… he can’t be doing that and expect loyalty.”

A shake-up is becoming more likely. Guido hears Starmer is receiving advice behind the scenes from Whitehall veteran Louise Casey who is “not a fan of a lot of the current set up around” the PM. National Security Adviser and Blairite old hand Jonathan Powell also has Starmer’s ear and believes that personnel are “amateurish.” The old guard stepping in…

The mood is febrile and changes to both the political and official personnel rosters – awaited for later in the year – are expected to be accelerated now. Something has to change…