DAVID Lidington, Theresa May’s new right-hand man, is set to contact John Swinney, the Deputy First Minister, in the next two days in his new task to stave off a constitutional crisis with Edinburgh over Brexit.
Whitehall insiders said they were confident the 61-year-old, who succeeds Damian Green as the Cabinet Office Minister, would continue the work of building a good working relationship with the Scottish Government and persuade it to recommend Holyrood backs the Brexit legislation.
One senior source said: “His appointment augurs really well for the work he will pick up from Damian in terms of the Scottish Government, Brexit and devolution. He is a decent guy. There is an expectation he will make a call to Swinney in the next couple of days; it would be a good idea.”
Yet while the UK Government believes Nicola Sturgeon is slowly moving towards a position where she will, this spring, back MSPs agreeing to the UK Government’s flagship EU Withdrawal Bill, which transposes all EU law into UK law, the crunch is likely to come later in the process.
The Prime Minister has promised another piece of legislation, the Withdrawal Agreement and Implementation Bill, which will put the Brexit deal into law; a deal, which will include Britain leaving the single market and customs union; a position, which is anathema to the First Minister and her SNP colleagues.
Mr Lidington’s new role will also involve him chairing a number of important Cabinet committees on Brexit and, while he will not take the title of First Secretary of State, which Mr Green had, he will, if necessary, deputise for Mrs May at PMQs in the Commons.
His appointment was made as the PM sought to refresh her Cabinet with new appointments, including promoting the former Immigration Minister Brandon Lewis as Conservative Chairman, whose task will be to modernise the party after its poor election performance when Mrs May lost her Commons majority.
The Norfolk MP’s appointment came after Tory HQ embarrassingly mistweeted that Chris Grayling had been made party Chairman. This led to opposition figures mocking the Conservatives.
Labour’s Pat McFadden tweeted: "The stage fell apart at their conference. Their website is down. And they have screwed up their headline appointment. I remember John Smith making a speech once about John Major being the man with the non-Midas touch."
As expected there was no grand clear-out. All the main officeholders – Boris Johnson, Amber Rudd, David Davies and Philip Hammond - stayed put as did several others such as Michael Gove at Environment, David Mundell at Scotland and Mr Grayling at Transport.
The biggest casualty was Justine Greening, who refused a move from Education to Work and Pensions after David Gauke was shifted sideways to Justice.
She is replaced by Employment Minister Damian Hinds while Esther McVey, in the most unexpected promotion in the reshuffle, moves from the whips office to become Work and Pensions Secretary.
Sajid Javid has added housing to his portfolio as Communities Secretary to, as No 10 put it, underline the importance the Government attached to getting young people on the housing ladder.
It was suggested Jeremy Hunt had refused to be moved from his role as Health Secretary to the business portfolio. After an hour in Downing Street, he emerged with his job title extended to include social care. Greg Clark remains as Business Secretary.
After James Brokenshire resigned as Northern Ireland Secretary on health grounds - he needs a lung operation - he was replaced by Culture Secretary Caroline Bradley, who will have the task of trying to re-establish the Northern Irish Executive at Stormont.
Her role was given to her junior colleague in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Matt Hancock, who was once Chancellor George Osborne’s Chief of Staff. At 39, he becomes the youngest member of the Cabinet.
Today, the focus will move to junior ranks with the expectation that more women and Tories from an ethnic background will be promoted.
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