Former Brexit minister Steve Barclay is to become Boris Johnson’s chief of staff as the prime minister battles to save his premiership with further changes at No 10.
Mr Barclay – currently the Cabinet Office minister – will combines his ministerial duties with a new job of overseeing the running of Downing Street amid the turmoil over the Partygate scandal.
Downing Street also announced that Mr Johnson’s former spin doctor Guto Harri will become director of communications after Jack Doyle resigned at the end of last week.
Mr Johnson claimed the shake-up of his “senior team” would “strengthen the role of my cabinet and backbench colleagues and accelerate our defining mission to level up the country”.
No 10 said Mr Barclay new dual role would help would “integrate” the soon-to-be-revamped Office of the Prime Minister with the Cabinet Office.
Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said Boris Johnson was “panicking as he frantically rearranges deckchairs” – criticising the idea of Mr Barclay working for both No 10 and the Cabinet Office.
“This is a farce. Being No10 chief of staff is a 24/7 job so if Steve Barclay is taking it on as his third job then Tory MPs and the public can have no confidence that the dysfunction in Downing Street will come to an end,” said Ms Rayner.
Mr Harri takes on the spin doctor role after resigning from the right-wing channel GB News last year. He had been suspended for taking the knee live on air during a debate about racism and the stance taken by England’s footballers.
The PR man, Mr Johnson’s spokesman and chief of staff during his first term as London mayor, recently defended Mr Johnson over his handling of the Partygate scandal – but said the PM had to “cover his weaknesses”.
Mr Harri criticised Mr Johnson’s failure to get good people advising him in an interview with BBC Newscast. “Boris has always underestimated how critical it is to have a fantastic team around him,” said the new No 10 spin doctor.
He also told Laura Kuenssberg on the podcast that some working in politics at Westminster had told him they were not interested in helping Mr Johnson by going to work at Downing Street as the scandal rages on.
Mr Harri said he had spoken to someone who told him: “‘I’m not interested in going in to walk into the gallows’ … He said, ‘The danger is that [Mr Johnson] will leave it to the last moment and then all he is asking him to do is to join him in the gallows’.”
Asked about Mr Johnson’s grilling by Beth Rigby on Sky News early in mid-January, during which the PM appeared badly shaken, Mr Harri said: “He was in a really bad place at that – bad because it was bad for him. Bad because he’s exhausted and he’s got two young kids.”
The changes come after Mr Johnson lost five aides in the space of 24 hours. Mr Johnson also attempted to put a positive spin on the exodus of senior officials on as part of reset, but policy chief Munira Mirza quit in protest over his Savile smear against Sir Keir Starmer.
The PM’s official spokesperson said that the resignations of principal private secretary Martin Reynolds, chief of staff Dan Rosenfield and Mr Doyle had been “mutually agreed”.
In a desperate bid to win over wavering MPs considering no-confidence letters, Mr Johnson has promised them a greater role in policy-making with a “direct line” into No 10.
More announcements are expected in the coming days with what No 10 said would be a “particular focus on improving engagement and liaison with MPs”.
