Latest reshuffle news

This must go down as one of the maddest ever days in Westminster,cabinet ministers dropping like flies,Labour councillors and county councils likewise.

Labour now has control of no county councils as Nottinghamshire and Lancashire fall.

I write this post as Gordon Brown is about to appear in front of the cameras to try and explain the events.

So let's round up the developments since my post this morning.

Well Geoff Hoon and Paul McNulty have gone along with Margaret Beckett.Peter Hain has returned and Mp for Norwich is standing down immediately over expenses triggering a by election.

Andy Burnham is the new health secretary,Bob Ainsworth is the new defence secretary and Ben Bradshaw is the new culture secretary

Latest on the reshuffle

It's difficult to keep up with all the rumour and reshuffling at the moment but this is how it stands at the moment.

David Miliband and Alistair Darling stay where they are-no surprise there really but a defeat for Brown who simply couldn't risk any more resignations and as James Forsyth points out

the country now has a Chancellor who everyone—including the markets—knows is not the Prime Minister’s first choice for the job. What authority will Darling now have when he pronounces on economic matters?

Alan Johnson is the New Home secretary-that again will surely pivot him into being a future leader.

John Hutton is leaving the cabinet and will be standing down as an MP for family reasons

Alan Sugar's visit to No 10 yesterday has he becomes the new enterprise Czar-wait for all the You have been fired gags

Sinister events in Westminster

Guido wonders who leaked the news of Jacqui Smith's departure to the media and speculates that there may be more to this than meets the eye

Are we just at the rolling cock-up stage of government? It is hard to see who on the government side benefits from leaking this now apart from a deliberate Machiavellian internal saboteur. Someone with skills in the dark arts of spin who might have decided it is time, for the sake of the survival of his beloved New Labour, to bring down the curtain on Gordon Brown. Jacqui exiting in a messy way puts the reshuffle speculation front and centre and adds to the sense of Brown’s government on the verge of collapse on the very eve of an election. It takes a crisis to precipitate a solution.

Government falling apart as the wheels come off

Jacqui Smith is rumoured to be leaving the cabinet.

Downing Street are calling it pure speculation but the BBC are saying that it has been confirmed by Westminster sources.

Did she jump or was she pushed?

Make no mistake this is a serious day for the Prime Minister.The home secretary is one of the grand offices of state and to be forced out either by the expenses scandal or maybe pure incompetence is a devastating blow.

On top of this three more Labour MP's have announced that they are stepping down.One David Chayter as a result of expenses,the others Beverley Hughes and Patricia Hewitt look like they are deserting a sinking ship.

It seems strange for both of these to announce their stepping down during this most difficult week for Labour.

Harriet Harman is currently on the World at One trying to plaster over the cracks and not doing a very good job.

Now it seems that the door is open for Ed Balls to get the keys to No 11 and Alistair Darling to go to the Home Office.

Brummer on why Balls should not be Chancellor

Alex Brummer writes in the Mail this morning on why Ed Balls will be a bad choice for Chancellor

When all was going swimmingly for Britain he took much of the credit and enjoyed being cast as a young pretender to future leadership of the Labour Party.
But as the gloss has come off Brown's economic stewardship with the onset of the credit crunch and the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, many of the decisions taken by Brown, on the advice of Balls, have been exposed as serious errors.

For Alex his biggest failure was taking away the Bank of England from the regulation of the Banks which is widely seen as the part cause of the financial crisis as well as him playing a key role in

in the decision by Brown to raise £5billion of income used to fund youth unemployment by raiding defined salary pension schemes.

Odds for a reshuffle on Friday

Interesting snippet from James Forsyth over at Coffee House who reveals that

the word is that Gordon Brown will reshuffle the Cabinet on Friday as the local election results come in. The thinking is that this will distract attention from the results, allow Labour to claim that the European election results on Sunday are a verdict on the past Cabinet not this one and, most crucially, to make it harder for any plot to get off the ground.

James goes on to say though that even this will be enveloped in chaos as

Friday will be one of those days when no one knows what is going to happen. It could end with Brown having pulled off a reshuffle and stymied the plotters or with Ministers resigning on air and saying Labour needs a new leader.

Mandleson was only third choice

Sue Cameron throws some straws into the wind by suggesting in her column today that Peter Mandleson was only the third choice when he looked for some Blairite influence for his cabinet.

According to Sue

Apparently, when Mr Brown decided to bury the hatchet with followers of Tony Blair, the former prime minister, the man he asked first was the former Blairite cabinet “enforcer” Alan Milburn. Word is that Mr Milburn turned him down, saying unkindly that the prime minister was “a disaster

and then

the PM asked John Reid, the Blairite former home secretary. Apparently, he said no, too, insisting that the PM was “the cause of the trouble”

Tory reaction to the return of Mandleson

Was the appointment of Mandleson designed to put the wind up the Tories?

Maybe-this statement from William Hague via Conservative Home

Today’s reshuffle demonstrates a stunning failure of judgement by Gordon Brown. In bringing back Peter Mandelson – the man who created Labour spin – he has broken his promise to govern in an honest and open way. You can only conclude that his appointment was designed to distract from the changes he should have made. By leaving in place a Chancellor who has failed and a Foreign Secretary who has undermined him at every opportunity Gordon Brown has also been exposed as weak. With this bizarre reshuffle the Prime Minister has achieved the impossible and made the Government even more dysfunctional.”

Mandleson and Beckett back-Browne goes

I couldn't have put it better myself.James Forsyth at Coffee House compares Peter Mandleson's comeback to the tale of the frog and the scorpion.

Here it is in an abbreviated version

Hellooo Mr. Frog!" called the scorpion across the water, "Would you be so kind as to give me a ride on your back across the river?"
"Well now, Mr. Scorpion! How do I know that if I try to help you, you wont try to kill me?" asked the frog hesitantly.
"Because," the scorpion replied, "If I try to kill you, then I would die too, for you see I cannot swim!" ....................Halfway across the river, the frog suddenly felt a sharp sting in his back and, out of the corner of his eye, saw the scorpion remove his stinger from the frog's back. A deadening numbness began to creep into his limbs.
"You fool!" croaked the frog, "Now we shall both die! Why on earth did you do that?"
The scorpion shrugged, and did a little jig on the drownings frog's back.
"I could not help myself. It is my nature."

Yes the scorpion is back.Gordon Brown has confounded his critics and done something which seems almost daring.Peter Mandleson is back and will be the new business secretary.The previous incumbent John Hutton moves to defence as Des Browne leaves the cabinet.Geoff Hoon takes Ruth Kelly's place at transport and Nick Brown as predicted is the new chief Whip.Margaret Beckett who was effectively sacked by Brown on his coronation returns as a cabinet enforcer and we have a new department of energy and climate which is headed by Ed Miliband.

A limited reshuffle

The papers are full of reshuffle specualtion this morning but all agree that it wont be a culling and with Gordon Brown now thinking that he is on firmer ground,there is little chance of the big three jobs being moved.
Well what is going to happen?

Some speculation about the fate of Hilary Benn who has been seen as a weak link at DFID.Liam Byrne's name is cropping up a lot.His skills at managing may mean a cabinet post for him and some suggest that he will be the enforcer for Gordon Brown.

According to the Independent

Ed Miliband, the Cabinet Office minister and a close Brown ally, is being considered for a key role on the new economic crisis committee.

The Guardian beleives that

Gordon Brown might appoint leading critic Jon Cruddas to his government in a cabinet reshuffle expected in the next couple of days.

Anyway let us wait and see

Cabinet Shuffle predictions,Browne out,Hutton to take his place

The Telegraph is reporting tonight that Defence Secretary Des Browne is under pressure and is expected to be moved in the much predicted autumn cabinet shuffle.

According to the paper

Mr Browne has been criticised since he took the job in Mr Brown's first Cabinet because he is combining it with the position of Secretary of State for Scotland.

Hardly his fault but apparently

It is understood that Mr Browne was privately assured when he agreed to take the jobs 13 months ago that he would only have to do both for one year. He has recently told friends that he would prefer to lose the Scotland job and keep Defence, but he is unlikely to be given the choice

John Hutton is the prefer ed choice to take over.It has been reported that his relations with the unions at the business portfolio have not been good,so the Prime Minister will seize the opportunity no doubt to move him

Cabinet shuffle on the way

Andrew Porter over at Three Line whip speculates about a possible cabinet reshuffle post 1st May.

As he says it will probably be a minor one involving junior ministers but how about this for the "nuclear option"

Alistair Darling from the Treasury to the Foreign Office (Balls or Straw replacing him).
David Miliband from Foreign Office to Home Office.
Jacqui Smith from Home Office to Business Department (the old DTI).
John Hutton from Business Department to Defence.