The Guardian

Promotions court controversy

Michael White, political editor
Tuesday May 10, 2005

Tony Blair defied his circling critics last night by reshaping his ministerial team to include such controversial New Labour figures as his No 10 adviser, Andrew Adonis, the renegade ex-Tory MP Shaun Woodward, and Lord Drayson, the pharmaceutical entrepreneur involved in cash-for-contracts allegations.

Though he promoted a significant number of allies of the chancellor, Gordon Brown, alongside Blairites - many of them younger backbench MPs of obvious talent - Mr Blair appeared to have acted without extensive consultation with Mr Brown. However, No 10 later insisted that the chancellor and prime minister had talked on the phone about the reshuffle "several times" yesterday - repeating a pattern of discordance between the two camps also heard after the first day of the reshuffle.

The chancellor, whose claims to succeed Mr Blair soon were trumpeted by some MPs yesterday, was said to be disappointed, though not inclined to make a fuss. He had not fought for allies to be promoted or actively sought a full consultation, friends said.

With the cabinet itself reshuffled on Friday night - amid strong resistance from some ministers - yesterday's junior appointments included a return to government for Beverley Hughes, who was forced out of the Home Office over the eastern European visas row.

One minister who quit over the Iraq war, the health specialist, Lord Hunt, rejoined the government at work and pensions. But John Denham, who also quit over the war, is said to have turned down offers rumoured to have included a possible cabinet post.

Mr Adonis, widely seen as the driving force behind many of Mr Blair's education policies - including university finance and student fees - will become a peer and work under Jacqui Smith as education minister. She was cited by No 10 as a "rising star", along with Jane Kennedy, now No 2 at health.

His promotion was leaked and is said to have been resisted by Ruth Kelly, the education secretary, who struggled to keep her own job.

But controversial too will be the appointment of Lord Drayson, who gave huge sums of money to Labour funds, then won a ?20m contract to provide smallpox vaccines in an anti-terrorist move. The deal was later cleared by an in dependent assessor, but left a question mark. Lord Drayson joins the Ministry of Defence.

Shaun Woodward's case was different. A former director of communications at Tory headquarters, he defected before the 2001 election and was found a safe seat.

After a day of negotiations at No 10 the prime minister was still finalising details of what will be 90 changes of post at the start of his third government, with a mixture of job changes and sackings.

Yvette Cooper, a Brown ally, was promoted to run housing and planning. But her husband, the newly elected MP for Normanton, Ed Balls, who was previously Mr Brown's righthand man at the Treasury, had let it be known he wanted to concentrate on learning the ropes as a backbencher.

Among those resigning or sacked are Nick Raynsford - furious at being denied the cabinet seat John Prescott sought for him - John Spellar, and a clutch of peers.

The prime minister was holed up all day dealing with the changes which he is determined to show underline his resolve to govern strongly in a reformist mode. It remains to be seen if his party will let him or if it prefers to force him out of No 10 as a liability.

With the Tories rubbing their hands with glee at a Labour rerun of their own battles of the 1990s, the prime minister will use tomorrow night's first meeting of the new parliamentary Labour party to try to stamp his authority.