A report on Politics Home has sparked off speculation here in Manchester that Brown will reshuffle his Cabinet before the end of this week. It is easy to see why this might appeal to the Brownites; the rebels are still not sure what to do next, David Miliband can’t decide whether to go for it or not and Brown’s authority is getting a temporary boost from conference. But this option is fraught with risk. First, there is the danger that a Minister might simply refuse to move—one has let it be known that he would walk rather relinquish his current job. Second, for any reshuffle to actually do anything for the government’s fortunes in the medium term it would have to move around the people in the top three jobs. Doing that, though, could bring down Brown.
If Brown moved Darling he would render absurd his argument that you can’t change the leader during a time of economic crisis.
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