Boris Johnson this morning attempted to put a positive gloss on the exodus of senior officials from 10 Downing Street, quoting The Lion King as he told remaining staff: “Change is good.”
In an address to his No 10 team in the cabinet room - watched by some on video link - the prime minister acknowledged that the government was going through “challenging times” and misjudgments had been made.
But he told them: “As Rafiki in the Lion King says, change is good, and change is necessary even though it’s tough. We’ve got to get on with our job of serving the people of this country.”
The PM’s official spokesperson denied that senior officials Martin Reynolds, Dan Rosenfield and Jack Doyle were effectively sacked as Johnson conducts a shake-up of Downing Street in a bid to shore up his position in the wake of the Partygate scandal.
The spokesperson said the departures were “mutually agreed”, though he confirmed that the resignations of policy chief Munira Mirza on Thursday and policy unit member Elena Narozanski were not planned.
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Mr Johnson was applauded by staff after telling them that, at the half-way point in a five-year term in office, it was time to “eat their half-time oranges, spit out the peel and get stuck back in”.
No appointments are expected imminently for the departed staff, with principal private secretary Reynolds, chief of staff Rosenfield and director of communications Doyle remaining in post as the recruitment process for their replacements gets under way.
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He said all three announcements had been planned before the shock resignation of policy chief Ms Mirza, who inflicted a devastating blow on her long-time boss by walking out over his refusal to apologise for a “scurrilous” smear falsely linking Keir Starmer with the disgraced paedophile Jimmy Savile.
The chief of staff and comms roles are political appointments, but Mr Reynolds’ post will be filled through the standard civil service procedures, as will the choice of a permanent secretary to head the new Office of the Prime Minister.
Mr Johnson’s spokesperson said that no further departures from No 10 were currently anticipated.
And he insisted that the PM’s relations with Rishi Sunak were “good”, after the chancellor yesterday admitted the government had lost public trust and distanced himself from Johnson’s Savile slur.
Health secretary Sajid Javid today became the second cabinet minister to distance himself from Johnson’s discredited claim that, in his previous role as director of public prosecutions, Sir Keir had failed to prosecute the celebrity abuser.
Mr Javid told reporters: “Keir Starmer, when he was running the DPP, did a good job and he should be respected for it, it is a tough job and he deserved absolute respect for that.
“But the Prime Minister has also come out and clarified those remarks, and that is important.”
Asked if the Prime Minister still had his support, Mr Javid said: “Of course he does. Absolutely.”
Mr Johnson’s reference to The Lion King is the latest in a string of popular culture icons he has shoehorned into his comments recently, after he asked the CBI if they liked Peppa Pig and compared Starmer and his deputy Angela Rayner to cartoon duo Dastardly and Muttley.
In the 1994 animated movie, lion prince Simba tells mandrill shaman Rafiki “Looks like the winds are changing”. Rafiki replies “Change is good”, prompting the response from Simba: “Yeah, but it’s not easy”.
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Confirming the PM’s use of the line, Mr Johnson’s spokesperson told reporters: “He reflected on the privilege of working in No 10 in order to deliver for the British people and reiterated his and No 10’s commitment to serving the public by keeping people safe, improving lives and spreading opportunity.
“As he reiterated to the team today, there is an important job to do, the public expects us to be focused on it, whether it is the situation in Ukraine, recovering from the pandemic or, as the Chancellor was setting out yesterday, on issues such as cost of living.”