What the commentators said
“It’s quite a feat for Johnson to have made a martyr of the mild-mannered Sajid Javid,” said Camilla Cavendish in the FT. Still, this “land-grab” made sense. Given how hard it will be to extract Britain from the EU, it’s essential that the Government’s key figures are working in concert. Sunak is much more closely aligned with the PM’s views than Javid is, said Katy Balls in the I newspaper. For that reason, he was already No. 10’s preferred point of contact with the Treasury. He was an early Brexiter, and supports the plans to end cheap labour through a new points-based immigration system – “something Javid was privately worried about”.
Sunak is a more natural fit with No. 10, said Stephen Daisley in The Spectator, but the 39year-old is hardly going to enjoy a “relationship of equals” with Johnson and Cummings. By installing him and a new pooled team of advisers, the PM has effectively annexed the Treasury. This will make life easier for Johnson, but it’s likely to have a negative impact on the quality of governance, which “thrives on give and take” and a certain creative tension between No. 10 and No. 11. Other PMs considered taming the Treasury in this way but stopped short of doing so, realising that “the divide between political will and economic realities was a load-bearing wall” which couldn’t be removed without causing “some longer-term structural mischief”.
It was difficult to see the sense in any of Johnson’s reshuffle, said Janet Street-Porter in The Independent. Hard-earned experience and skill seemed to count for nothing compared to “loyalty and a non-questioning mindset”. We got yet another Housing Minister – the tenth in a decade – while Julian Smith, who “won the trust of all parties in Northern Ireland”, was unceremoniously dumped. The news footage of the PM leading his new Cabinet in a pantomime call-and-response exercise – “How many hospitals are we going to build?” “Forty!” – only made his team look even more like a bunch of obsequious mediocrities, said Marina Hyde in The Guardian. If you thought Jeremy Hunt and Philip Hammond were uninspiring, wait until you see Alok Sharma and Suella Braverman. Believe it or not, Liz Truss is now the longest-serving Cabinet minister. “It’s not exactly Team of Rivals, is it?”
What next?
Sunak this week dispelled speculation about a possible delay to the Budget, confirming that the event would go ahead as planned on 11 March. He is understood to be considering a cut in higher-rate tax relief on pension contributions – a move that would raise £10bn a year.
The City is predicting a giveaway Budget, but it remains to be seen whether the Chancellor diverges from the strict fiscal rules announced by his predecessor last year. Under those rules, the deficit on day-to-day spending must be cleared by 2023; public sector net investment is capped at 3% of GDP; and spending plans must be reviewed if debt interest payments reach 6% of revenue.