Ex-treasury official is No 10 chief of staff

The former Treasury official who helped steer the economy through the financial crisis a decade ago will become Boris Johnson’s chief of staff. Signalling his intention to prioritise the UK’S recovery from coronavirus, the Prime Minister announced that Dan Rosenfield, a former aide to George Osborne as chancellor, would be joining his No 10 operation. The appointment comes two weeks after the departure of key No 10 aides Dominic Cummings and Lee Cain.

THE former Treasury official who helped steer the economy through the financial crisis a decade ago has been selected by Boris Johnson to be his new chief of staff.

Signalling his intention to prioritise the UK’S recovery from coronavirus, the Prime Minister announced that Dan Rosenfield would be joining the heart of his No 10 operation.

The appointment comes two weeks after a dramatic internal power struggle over the role resulted in the departure of Downing Street aides Dominic Cummings and Lee Cain.

Mr Rosenfield, who served as principal private secretary to the Chancellor under George Osborne and Alistair Darling, will enter government on Dec 7 and formally take over duties from Lord Udny-lister, the acting chief of staff, in the new year.

In 2010, Mr Rosenfield helped Mr Osborne formulate his first budget which was designed to seize control of public finances strained by the biggest financial crisis in a decade.

Describing the “tough” time, the former Treasury chief said: “That sense of knowing that the bailing out of the banks, which I absolutely think was the right thing to do on a case-by-case basis, was going to create public anger and a sense of us and them.”

He said that the most important thing he learned from the crisis was “throwing frameworks out... Nationalising banks was alien to us; it had not been done for so long. To manage these situations and more, we had to think outside the box and be flexible,” Mr Rosenfield said. He also had a warm working relationship with Mr Osborne’s Labour predecessor, now Lord Darling, whose wife Maggie invited his parents to lunch at 11 Downing Street. A former Treasury colleague said that Mr Rosenfield was a “fantastic choice” for the chief of staff role.

The source said: “George valued him immensely and relied on him – he was his right hand man in the Treasury. The appointment suggests to me that the Prime Minister is seriously looking forward to how Britain’s economy can recover from the pandemic.”

Mr Rosenfield, a father of three, also played a key role in economic planning for the 2012 London Olympics when Mr Johnson was London mayor.

‘George valued him immensely and relied on him – he was his right hand man in the Treasury’

On leaving government he worked for five years as an investment banker with Bank of America Merrill Lynch and later moved to the strategic advisory firm Hakluyt. He is also the chairman of World Jewish Relief, the British Jewish community’s humanitarian agency.

In a text message to Conservative MPS, Mr Johnson told them Mr Rosenfield was a “great guy” that he hoped they would get to know soon.

It also emerged yesterday that Cleo Watson, the head of the Prime Minister’s priorities and campaigns, would be leaving Downing Street. Mr Cummings had pushed for Ms Watson to be made chief of staff before his departure, but the move was resisted by Mr Johnson.