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9 February 2022

Boris Johnson cannot change who he is – and no reshuffle will fix that

New appointments for Stephen Barclay and Jacob Rees-Mogg are just a desperate displacement activity.

By Philip Collins

A common political reaction to an insurmountable problem is a flurry of irrelevant activity. That is what is happening in Downing Street right now.

There is a new chief of staff, Stephen Barclay MP, charged with bringing discipline and order to the chaotic procedures. In the midst of panic, the constitutional novelty of the Office of the Prime Minister is being hastily minted. A new policy supremo, Andrew Griffith MP, is offering backbench policy committees. Guto Harri, the new communications chief, opened up by pointing out that the Prime Minister was not a complete clown. There was even a ministerial reshuffle in which a sinecure was invented for Jacob Rees-Mogg, all in the forlorn hope of changing the subject.

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