Good morning. Kemi Badenoch has a big speech this morning (albeit one extensively trailed), the Greens are announcing the results of their leadership contest, but there is still considerable focus on what is happening in Downing Street, where Keir Starmer will chair the first cabinet to be attended by Darren Jones in his new role as chief secretary to the PM. As Pippa Crerar and Jessica Elgot report in the Guardian’s splash, Starmer’s mini-reshuffle is being seen as an attempt “to wrest back control of economic policy from the Treasury”.
Other papers have offered a more brutal intepretation, writing this up as Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, being marginalised.
This morning Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, has been touring the studios. Mostly her interviews have focused on the asylum system (more on that soon), but she was also asked about the Downing Street shake-up. Asked on Sky News if Reeves was being sidelined, Cooper replied:
I don’t think so at all. Quite the reverse. I think the prime minister and the chancellor have always worked extremely closely together and continue to do so.
The mini-reshuffle means that Starmer, who has not had an heavyweight economic adviser in No 10 with the clout to take on the Treasury toe-to-toe, now has Jones, previously Reeves’s well-regarded deputy, and Minouche Shafik, a former deputy governor of the Bank of England, reporting directly to him.
Asked if the reshuffle meant No 10 would have more input into this year’s budget than it had last year, Cooper replied:
In my experience through successive chancellors through very many years, ultimately, the chancellor always writes the budget, because that’s the nature of the complex mix of things, but always with conversations and discussions with the prime minister throughout, so you get that strong support.
(The more accurate answer is ‘yes, of course, that’s the whole point’ – as Pippa and Jess explain in their story.)
Of course, you would expect Cooper to reply like this. But Reeves will probably welcome what she said. And Reeves needs some good news. As Graeme Wearden reports, long-term government borrowing costs have just hit their highest level for 27 years.
Here is the agenda for the day.
11am: The Green party of England and Wales announces the results of its leadership contest. As Aletha Adu reports, Zack Polanski is expected to win.
11am: Keir Starmer chairs cabinet.
11am: Kemi Badenoch gives a speech to the Society of Petroleum Engineers Offshore Europe conference in Aberdeen. As the Tories have been briefing since the weekend, she will say that a future Conservative government would maximise the extraction of oil and gas from the North Sea.
11.30am: David Lammy, the foreign secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
Noon: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
After 12.30pm: MPs start debating the second reading of the English devolution and community empowerment bill.
Also, at some point today, the government is publishing its new sentencing bill.
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