Boris Johnson is facing yet another backlash over the appointment of No 10’s new chief of staff.
Following the exodus of a number of senior advisors from No 10, the prime minister has appointed Steve Barclay as his new top aide.
Steve Barclay is replacing Dan Rosenfield as the PM’s new chief of staff. A former Brexit secretary, Barclay will also be tasked with, according to No 10, a “new office of the prime minister and cabinet office.” He will also continue his role as Chancellor of Duchy of Lancaster and as MP for North East Cambridgeshire.
Downing Street said that Barclay will make sure that government policies are delivered “more efficiently” and that the “levelling up agenda” is carried out at “maximum speed.”
However, Johnson’s appointment of the “triple-jobbing” chief of staff has been mocked by MPs and former holders of the top aide position.
Amid questions of how the Tory politician can manage his workload and balance the position with his existing responsibilities, Labour had attempted to get Barclay to attend the House of Commons yesterday to explain his new role.
The new No 10 chief of staff failed to attend parliament to respond to Labour’s questions, with junior cabinet office minister Michael Ellis showing up in his place.
Angela Rayner didn’t hold back, noting how Barclay’s “very first act is refusing even to turn up here to explain his own job?”
The Labour leader added: “Is he [Barclay] still in charge of dealing with the Channel crossings, tackling the pandemic, protecting the Union, veterans policy and every other priority of the Cabinet Office?
“This government is in chaos and the country is paying the price.”
As The Telegraph reports, the appointment has also seen the prime minister face a backlash from Tory officials.
Warnings have been made by Tories and Whitehall insiders about giving Barclay the twin role of chief of staff and minister in charge of the cabinet office, as well as being an MP with constituents.
A ‘recipe for chaos’
Nick Timothy, who served as joint Downing Street chief of staff alongside Fiona Hill to Theresa May, described the move as a “recipe for chaos.”
According to Timothy, the “sheer workload” of being a minister, constituency MP, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, chair of cabinet committees and chief of staff, would be problematic.
“Taken with the loss of senior staff and the involvement of outsiders who advise a bit, brief a bit, but aren’t privy to all the information needed and not there to do and oversee the work, it’s a recipe for chaos when these changes were supposed to bring order,” Timothy tweeted.
‘Utterly illogical
A former minister referred to the multiple positions is “utterly illogical,” saying: “It’s completely and utterly illogical to have a cabinet minister as effectively chief of staff and being an MP. There’s no way it can work with all those other responsibilities,” said one former minister.
Jonathan Powell, who was chief of staff to Tony Blair, questioned who would fund his chief of staff salary and whether it would count against his taxpayer-funded ministerial wages.
It “all seems a bit desperate,” said Powell.
The appointment of Steve Barclay comes amid a raft of new faces at Downing Street in a No 10 shake-up after a swathe of resignations following the series of lockdown-breaking parties.
Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead is a contributing editor to Left Foot Forward.
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