Downing Street Set for Internal SpAd Battles as Starmer Tries to Fix Dysfunction – Guido Fawkes

EXC: Downing Street Set for Internal SpAd Battles as Starmer Tries to Fix Dysfunction

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As the Lords rises for recess today to wind down parliament for the summer the Downing Street operation has a big task ahead to repair and reform itself. It’s a dirty job but someone will have to do it…

A Downing Street source tells Guido fatigue has set in and is “starting to show.” Unforced errors and mistakes have left Starmer exposed and he will now have to “resolve the problems with the policy unit” which has been beset with problems, is often blamed for failures due to chaotic management. Hence Bloomberg reporting this week that Starmer is asking to hear about policy earlier in the pipeline…

Without a wide shake-up to the private office that smoothes procedures an insider source tells Guido Starmer will need “a heavyweight official in No10 who can sort things for him in the way the private office can’t at the moment... they need to work well with Morgan, Powell and the Cabinet Secretary.” No10 dysfunction is usually treated with these kinds of workarounds and they don’t usually work…

Alistair Campbell confidant the former Blairite No10 director of communications Tim Allan has been mooted for that role as a new “permanent secretary for communications.” A Downing Street source tells Guido if Allan is appointed strategic communications boss James Lyons “will be pissed off.” Loggerheads on the way – not a quiet recess for some…