Expected to be a rather and boring and minor reshuffle, last Thursday, Mr Johnson abruptly transformed the shape of his Westminster cabinet, much to the shock of many political commentators. This ‘Valentine’s Day Massacre’ saw the removal and resignation of multiple key ministers from within the Prime Minister’s office.

The reshuffle saw the departure of names including Northern Irish Secretary of State Julian Smith, Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom, Attorney-General Geoffrey Cox and most surprising of all, the resignation of Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sajid Javid. Mr Javid’s unanticipated walk-out occurred after he rejected the PMs request to fire his team of advisors, to which he told the press this was a task “no self-respecting minister” could deliver on. The relatively inexperienced, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Rishi Sunak has been appointed as Mr Javid’s successor having only seven months ago been a Junior Housing minister. The 39-year old replacement has previously worked at Goldman Sachs, a hedge fund and co-found an investment firm and is viewed by many of his Conservative colleagues as an exciting prospect.

Why was this rather major reshuffle needed? BBC Political Editor, Laura Kuenssberg has commented that this reshuffle was primarily conducted by No.10 in order to reassert political control over the party. It therefore appears that the key purpose of this reorganisation was to centralise power, this is illustrated by the fact that loyalty is a trait that all of the promoted politicians seem to share whereas the demoted politicians appear to be not just as agreeable as Mr Johnson may have liked.

Although Prime Minister, Boris Johnson would be the individual assumed to be responsible for this parliamentary shake-up, many think that this may not necessarily be the case. Loud voices have been emanating from No.10 which imply that the mysterious, Dominic Cummings was responsible for orchestrating this reshuffle. Who exactly is Dominic Cummings? He is Boris Johnson’s chief special advisor who dramatically rose to prominence after his mastermind display throughout successful 2016 Vote Leave campaign. The Durham-born ‘spin-doctor’ is hypothesized by many political journalists to be the individual who calls the shots and refuses to let anyone stand in his way in exerting more power. Mr Cummings name has recently become smeared with allegations of bullying, unfair dismissal and even assault which will soon be addressed in Emily Maitlis’s BBC documentary. The legitimacy of such claims is yet to be clarified but one thing that is clear is the strong influence Mr Cummings has over the PM and the important decisions that must be made.

by Oliver Watt

A No.10 Reshuffle