Friday, June 5, 2009

Johnson is Home Secretary - Denham to Communities - Hutton to leave cabinet - Straw and Darling remain in post

Update 12:23: Guess wrong - Yvette Cooper for Work and Pensions seems the most likely one now, according to the Beeb.

Update 12:05: Denham is to be Comunities Secretary. Yvette Cooper for Health? That would be my guess.

Update 10.30: Hutton to leave cabinet for "personal reasons". Prescott lays into Harman on Labour Home.

And I resisted the temptation to put "+++" on the title, you'll notice.

Yes, Brown is staggering blithely on. I am surprised that Darling is staying as Chancellor after the various nods and winks of the last week. It is great that Brown finally found someone to be Home Secretary and Alan Johnson will make a good one. I've always thought John Denham is a reasonably sound chap - but he fulfils the main criteria needed for a minister at the moment - he is one of the dwindling band of Brown loyalists.

Mandelson is staying as business secretary - so no Alan Sugar in the government then. Update: But he will be an "Enterprise Tsar" (whatever that means - I suspect it means simply complying with the Lyndon Johnson motto of preferring to have people inside the tent....)

It seems that Browns very prompt reshuffle has headed off the backbencher email at the pass.

BBC political correspondent Iain Watson says: One of the organisers of the round robin e-mail calling for the prime minister to go has said the early reshuffle has made their tactics "far more difficult" - they may delay until after council election results are known and "may not send the letter around at all".

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