By Ben Kerrigan-
Brexiteer and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Steve Barclay, 49, will be under pressure as Boris Johnson’s new chief of staff, while former GB News presenter and outspoken Remainer Guto Harri, 55, will head up the communications role.
Mr Johnson said both men will ‘improve how No 10 operates, strengthen the role of my Cabinet and backbench colleagues, and accelerate our defining mission to level up the country’, but some ministers have begun to express doubt over Barclay’s ability to handle the extra role placed on him. Mr Barclay will take forward reforms to the Downing Street operation, integrating a “new Office of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet Office”, Number 10 said.
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A government spokesman said: “The Chief of Staff role will focus primarily on driving the Government’s agenda and ensuring it is better aligned with Cabinet and backbenchers.
Speaking to Sky News, Lord Barwell said Mr Barclay was “diligent, smart, insists on high standards and a nice guy to boot”.
However, Barclays, who this publication can confirm recently contacted the Ministry Of Justice to investigate a suspicious recall to prison by the Probation service in the North Of England, will have his hands full, according to a number of observers.
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Jonathan Powell, who carried out the role under Labour PM Tony Blair, tweeted: “Does he resign as an MP? Or is he answerable to parliament? I can think of no democracy where the chief of staff can also be in the legislature.
“I found being No 10 chief of staff a full-time job. Not sure how it could be combined with representing a constituency. And having to go to answer parliamentary questions about the PM would be tricky.”
Nick Timothy, who was joint chief of staff to Theresa May, said 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 a problem.
“Taken with the loss of senior stao Handle f Staffhrf 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,” tweeted Mr Timothy.
Another senior Tory adviser said: “Even as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster [Mr Barclay’s official title] alone, you are pulled in loads of different directions, but to add chief of staff feels like an impossible juggling act.
“They were struggling to fill it and that’s not meant as a slight on Steve, just that ideally you wouldn’t be combining it with other jobs if good people were putting their hands up.”
The new appointments follow the resignation of his long-serving policy chief Munira Mirza this week, one of the last aides remaining from his days as London Mayor at City Hall.
Ms Mirza quit on Thursday over Mr Johnson’s use of a smear against Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, over the failure to prosecute Jimmy Savile.
Other resignations from director of communications Jack Doyle, chief of staff Dan Rosenfield, principal private secretary Martin Reynolds, and special adviser in the policy unit Elena Narozanski.
As the PM’s new Chief of Staff, No.10 said Mr Barclay will be ‘in charge of integrating the new Office of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet Office, driving the Government’s agenda more efficiently and ensuring it is better aligned with the Cabinet and backbenchers.’
Cardiff-born Mr Harri has held several top communications roles in the past and was the PM’s spokesman and chief of staff during his first term as London mayor.
Last July, he was publicly reprimanded by GB News executives and forced out after taking the knee in solidarity with black England football stars who received racist abuse after the Euros final.
Mr Harri’s new appointment has already caught the eye of ousted former special aide Dominic Cummings, who tweeted in response to the news on Saturday night: ‘Message from No10: “So our new boss is a pro-Remain lobbyist who’s said the PM is ‘sexually incontinent’, ‘hugely divisive’, ‘destructive’, ‘dragging the country down’, & picked ‘wrong side’ in referendum’ GREAT.”‘
In a 2018 Cardiff University alumni blog post, Mr Harri said he was ‘surprised, disappointed and arguably distraught’ about Mr Johnson’s leadership of the Leave campaign – adding that he held ‘very different views’ from his then-former boss on Brexit, describing Britain’s departure from the EU as ‘a catastrophic act of self-harm for the UK’.
That same year he also accused him of ‘digging his political grave’ and warned he would be ‘hugely divisive’ as a Prime Minister. The comments came as Mr Johnson faced a Tory backlash over his claim that Theresa May’s Brexit strategy had put the UK in a ‘suicide vest’ and handed the detonator to Brussels.
Mr Harri added that Mr Johnson was ‘dragging us into a place where we think that we can joke about suicide vests and that we can be sexually incontinent’.
He told BBC Radio 4’s The Week in Westminster in 2018: ‘He was a huge unifying figure by the end of my time with him when the Olympics happened in London. There were people on left and right. He would not have been re-elected in a left leaning city like London if he hadn’t appealed to the left.
‘Now he’s gone the other way. He’s become more tribal, and tribal within the tribe, so that he would now be – if he were to become leader – a hugely divisive figure.’
But earlier justifying his new appointees, including Mr Harri, Mr Johnson said: ‘This week I promised change, so that we can get on with the job the British public elected us to do.
Johnson faced a backlash from Tories and Whitehall insiders who warned that giving him the twin roles of chief of staff and minister in charge of the Cabinet Office as well as being an MP with constituents to help was an “impossible juggling act” and a “recipe for chaos.”
Mr Barclay, who is also heading the cross-government review of the Channel migrant crisis, was appointed at the weekend as part of a “reset” of Mr Johnson’s premiership to satisfy backbench Tory demands for a shake-up of the error-prone Downing Street operation.
Nick Timothy, who was joint chief of staff to Theresa May, said 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 a problem.
“Taken with the loss of senior stao Handle f Staffhrf 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,” tweeted Mr Timothy.
Another senior Tory adviser said: “Even as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster [Mr Barclay’s official title] alone, you are pulled in loads of different directions, but to add chief of staff feels like an impossible juggling act.
“They were struggling to fill it and that’s not meant as a slight on Steve, just that ideally you wouldn’t be combining it with other jobs if good people were putting their hands up.”
There are concerns over the ‘sheer workload’ of the twin roles assigned to Steve Barclay in Downing Street – Chris Ratcliffe© Provided by The Telegraph There are concerns over the ‘sheer workload’ of the twin roles assigned to Steve Barclay in Downing Street – Chris Ratcliffe
Jonathan Powell, who was the chief of staff to Tony Blair, said it “all seems a bit desperate” as he questioned who would pay his chief of staff salary and if it would count against his taxpayer-funded ministerial wages
A government source said Mr Barclay would have desks in No 10 and the Cabinet office, and that many of his current ministerial responsibilities will be redistributed to other ministers within the Cabinet office. He will, however, continue to chair Cabinet committees and lead the department.
Unlike Dan Rosenfield, his predecessor as chief of staff and one of five resignations from No 10 last week, the source said Mr Barclay will not be paid as a special adviser but via his ministerial salary. Whether he will get any uplift for the extra responsibility is to be “worked through,” said a source.
His role could be supported by the appointment this week of a permanent secretary to head the new Office of the Prime Minister, along with a new parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to Boris Johnson to replace Andrew Griffiths, another MP who has been brought in to head No 10’s policy unit.
“In his dual role as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Chief of Staff, alongside his extensive experience as an MP, Steve Barclay will be well placed to ensure the Prime Minister’s levelling up agenda is delivered at maximum speed while strengthening Cabinet government and providing an enhanced role for Ministers and Parliament.”
Dame Emily Lawson, the head of NHS England’s vaccination programme, is regarded as a frontrunner for the new permanent secretary of the Prime Minister’s office. Changes are also expected in the whips’ office but Downing Street insisted there were no wider plans for a reshuffle.
Dominic Cummings is expected to make further allegations about the refurbishment of the Downing Street flat on Monday.
The Government rejected claims that Guto Harri, the new director of communications, was on six-month leave of absence from his work at Hawthorn Advisers, in case the No 10 role was not long term. Mr Harri, former BBC presenter, worked with Mr Johnson when he was London mayor.
Mr Johnson is in talks to appoint David Canzini, a protege of Sir Lynton Crosby, the Australian election guru, who is advising the Prime Minister behind the scenes. They are understood to want a wider cull of other aides who have clashed with MPs and ministers before committing to a formal role.
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