Jennifer McKiernanPolitical reporter, BBC News
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Darren Jones has been given a key No 10 role by Sir Keir Starmer, as the prime minister shakes up his Downing Street team as Parliament returns.
Jones, who has spent the last year as the chief secretary to the Treasury, has been appointed to the new role of chief secretary to the Prime Minister.
He will be replaced at the Treasury by James Murray, previously the exchequer secretary at the department, whose role will in turn be filled by Dan Tomlinson, an economist who was first elected as a Labour MP at last year’s general election.
One of Sir Keir’s communications directors, James Lyons, is also leaving after less than a year, having been appointed in October.
Appointing an MP like Jones to a backroom role in Downing Street is unusual but has been done before, with Boris Johnson appointing an MP, Steve Barclay, as his chief of staff for five months in 2022.
It comes after a difficult summer for the government, with the news agenda dominated by asylum and migration, amid a record number of small boat crossings so far this year.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper will deliver a statement to Parliament later, as ministers try to regain the initiative on the issue.
Confirming the changes, a Downing Street spokesman said Jones will “directly oversee work across government to support the delivery of the prime minister’s priorities and the government’s Plan for Change”.
Jones will still attend cabinet, and a wider reshuffle of cabinet-level ministers is not expected.
The No 10 communications team is also being shaken up, with fresh economic expertise also brought in.
Lyons had been in charge of No 10’s communications strategy, sharing the role with Steph Driver, who stays in place.
It comes after the BBC revealed last week that a key aide to Sir Keir, his principal private secretary Nin Pandit, was moving to a policy role in No 10.
A former deputy governor of the Bank of England, Baroness Minouche Shafik, has also been hired as the prime minister’s economic adviser.
A Downing Street spokesman said these backroom moves would “support the government to go further and faster in driving economic growth and raising living standards for all”.
