No 10’s SpAd gridlock

Rather than re-energise the Tory party as intended, Theresa May’s new year reshuffle just exposed her weaknesses and managed to annoy a lot of Conservative MPs in the process.

What’s more, Mr S understands there is another undesired consequence. Two weeks on and Downing Street is yet to fill a host of special advisor vacancies. Mr S hears murmur of discontent over the way the process is being handled – with complaints of No 10 control-freakery and attempts to thrust candidates on ministers. One aspect of this is a bid to keep the redundancy payments low – so re-appoint those SpAds who lost their jobs rather than go for external hires. But not everyone is playing ball.

‘If the government can’t manage a basic task like appointing a few SpAds, what does that tell us?,’ snarks one put-out Tory.