All Change Musical Chairs is Back

Shadow cabinet and government shuffles should concern us all.

Like many of you, I have run my own business and also worked for companies in a variety of industries.

Any sensibly constructed business is going to look to place the best people in the right management spots. That is Business 101.

Let’s take a fictional business.

The company will appoint a Financial Director (CFO in the U.S.) to manage the money side of the business. A trained and qualified accountant with significant financial business experience gained over the years.

A trained Marketing Manager will be selected to head the promotional side of the business. The head of PR will know the difference between marketing and public relations. The director of Human Resources will be an experienced person skilled in managing the employees in the business and making certain the law is followed.

And so it goes on, through engineering, legal, sales, and other aspects of any medium to large business.

These are professionals, best placed for their skills. Most will have years of experience in their field, built through gradual promotion or moving companies, to secure the top job in their chosen area. They will generally have stayed in the same field of discipline over many years before reaching the top spot in their chosen career.

The same cannot be said in the case of British politics.

The reshuffle of the shadow cabinet on Monday by Labour leader Sir Kier Starmer is a prime example of the differences between business and politics.

Can you imagine in our fictional business, the Marketing Manager changing places with the Financial Director? The marketing person has little or no experience in finance, yet they are given the keys to the bank and control of everything financial.

The financial director would be hard-pushed to know the difference between marketing and public relations. The HR director has years of knowledge on managing people, yet is now the chief engineer.

But hey, let’s swap them all around, I’m sure they will all be fine in their new positions.

No business will even think of moving people to positions where they have no experience, but that is exactly what happens in British politics. It makes no difference whether it is government or opposition parties, they all do it.

Let’s take the Secretary of State for Education, topical due to this week’s stories about 100 schools partly closing due to RAAC buildings.

The current Conservative government came to power in 2010 and since that time, has had 10 different Secretaries of State for Education. The first was Michael Gove and the current incumbent since October 2022, is Gillian Keegan. In thirteen years, that gives an average of less than 16 months in the post.

Michael Gove lasted just over four years in the post, with Michelle Donelan managing two full days. For those names excepted, the average is still 16 months.

Gove spent four years in the post and would have been able to gather significant experience in the role. He was also the shadow secretary for five years, giving him the best part of nine years with an education brief, an almost unheard-of period of time in British politics.

Since then the Member of Parliament for Surrey Heath has held several positions:

Chief Whip of the House of Commons; Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury (July 2024 - May 2015)

Secretary of State for Justice Lord Chancellor (May 2015 - July 2016)
followed by a gap

Secretary if State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (June 2017 - July 2019) followed by another gap

Minister for the Cabinet Office (Feb 2020 - Sept 2021) where he held a second position:

Chancellor of the Dutch of Lancaster (July 2019 - Sept 2021)
a third gap

Minister for Intergovernmental Relations (Oct 2022 - date) along with also being:

Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (Oct 2022 - date)

• (We have ignored the revolving door appointments of the Liz Truss era)

This means Gove has changed his job six times in 13 years. At times, he held more than one job. This is the equivalent in business of changing a career path six times with, probably, six different companies.

What experience could Gove take from Education to the Environment, or from Inter-Government Relations to Levelling-up and Housing? What knowledge of education is valid in housing? Well, this week, RAAC buildings perhaps.

How would his CV look to a prospective commercial employer? Here is a man who has had seven jobs in 13 years and has not stayed anywhere for long and has limited experience from each one. Plus, his CV would show three gaps away from senior management roles.

No business wants someone who hops around different disciplines in that way and would not expect him to stay long if they employed him. They know such a person is likely to be ineffective and probably move on. A commercial company would take one look at the string of mostly unrelated jobs on his CV along with the gaps, and not bother to call him for an interview.

Yet, hoping around jobs and playing musical chairs is exactly what cabinet and shadow cabinet shuffles are all about. Although not in all cases, people move from a job where they have gained at least some experience, to a place they have no knowledge of any kind.

We end up with people who have limited experience and limited time in their departments, who are charged with running the country. No sane business would do that, but that is the way politics works.

If this concerns you, don’t worry - it’s how we run the country.

And in Other News

Labour leader Sir Kier Starmer shuffled his shadow cabinet today, as Parliament opened following the summer recess. Deputy leader Angela Rayner becomes the shadow minister for Levelliing Up and will face Michael Gove across the despatch box. Rayner also becomes shadow deputy prime minister. Lisa Nandy is demoted to shadow minister for international development, with Hilary Benn appointed shadow minister for Northern Ireland among other changes.

Concrete (RAAC) tests are ordered on court buildings built in the nineties, following an inspection in north London that revealed potentially dangerous concrete.