"I was moved through six ministerial briefs in four years. I knew nothing about Africa when I was made the Africa minister. I had only just completed my Africa strategy, and introduced myself to the key African leaders, when I was made the prisons minister nine months later, still knowing very little about Africa and nothing at all about prisons."
"Little wonder that civil servants were reluctant to throw themselves behind my radical rethinks of my predecessor's approach not least because they sensed that I would soon be gone and my strategy with me. Starmer has now done his own reshuffle, and it is if anything worse than what the Tories did. Cameron left William Hague as foreign secretary for four years. Starmer has taken David Lammy, just as he has built his relationship with world leaders,"
Frequent ministerial reshuffles produced dozens of ministers who failed to deliver policies. One minister experienced six briefs in four years, moving from Africa to prisons with little expertise, which discouraged civil servants from supporting reforms. Starmer's reshuffle replaced experienced ministers without introducing new talent, moving David Lammy from foreign secretary and appointing Yvette Cooper, who lacks foreign policy experience. Ministers who had mastered complex portfolios were moved after barely a year, causing loss of knowledge. Unlike Cameron, who sent many ministers to the backbenches and introduced new faces, most moves involved shuffling existing ministers between posts. Holding onto the same team without dismissing poor performers suggests risk-aversion and will worsen governance.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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