After weeks of mounting speculation, Boris Johnson has reshuffled his government in an attempt to move beyond Brexit and the pandemic and make headway on the many challenges facing the country ahead of the next general election, which is slowly coming into view over the political horizon. The reshuffle was more wide-ranging than many Westminster observers had expected, although accounting for all the sideways moves it was more of a case of rearranging the furniture than a full-on redecoration. Stand out moves include Dominic Raab’s demotion from Foreign Secretary to Justice Secretary, Nadine’s Dorries’ elevation to role that has already been dubbed by the media as the Secretary of State for Culture Wars and Michael Gove’s move into a beefed-up Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government where he will be charged with translating levelling-up from an effective political slogan into a concrete policy agenda that delivers for the ‘red wall’ seats that gave Johnson in majority in 2019.
Please see below for the analysis from our Public Affairs team of the reshuffle with a focus on the Cabinet-level roles, what they tell us about Johnson’s approach to governing and his upcoming priorities.