A reshuffle on the Monday morning before parliament returned from recess had been long rumoured, but many in Westminster had expected a shake-up of junior ministers rather than Downing Street.

Staff in No 10 were gathered in awkward silence at 9.30am in the Pillared Room to wait for the prime minister to explain the changes, many of whom had thus far only read about them online.

The departures and new hires are expected to signal a new understanding about the need for experienced hands in government and to give Keir Starmer more direct oversight over the delivery of key government priorities, especially on the economy.

But some of the hires – particularly those from the Tony Blair era – have already proved controversial.

Who’s in?

Darren Jones

Starmer has poached Jones, in effect Rachel Reeves’s deputy, for the newly created post of chief secretary to the prime minister. A reliable communicator and a willing attack dog, Jones is expected to do lots of media for the PM on the government’s message and delivery, and to take on the threat from Reform.

Regarded as hardline on the economy, Jones was Reeves’s firewall in tense negotiations with cabinet ministers over the spending review. But he is also a loud progressive, having called for Labour to be the party of “love, compassion and community” to face off against Nigel Farage’s politics of “anger, division and blame”.

Chief secretary to the prime minister

Tim Allan

The most controversial appointment of the shake-up, Allan is a veteran spinner from the Blair government and the founder of the PR mega-agency Portland.

An extremely experienced communications specialist, his appointment is part of what one senior staffer told colleagues was more “grownups” returning to government – although that description has raised hackles internally.

Some special advisers are very concerned about Portland’s previous links to lobbying for the governments of Kazakhstan, Russia and Qatar – including for the controversial 2022 World Cup – and believe it will be a major issue for the government. Allan left the firm in 2019. Portland stopped lobbying on behalf of Russia in 2014.

Most of Allan’s past colleagues describe him as charming and collegiate. He will be well on the right of the party. Steve Richards, the former Labour adviser, recalled Allan’s No 10 leaving do 20 years ago where Blair teased that he was “even more rightwing than me”.

Executive director of communications

Minouche Shafik

Said to have been Starmer’s choice for cabinet secretary, the former Bank of England deputy governor has finally been lured to Downing Street to add much-needed economic heft to the operation.

Shafik had a controversial tenure at Columbia University over pro-Gaza protests that eventually forced her resignation, but in No 10 she will be back in her specialism and she has held a major Whitehall role before as permanent secretary at the Department for International Development.

Along with Jones and Starmer’s new private secretary, Daniel York-Smith, who comes from the Treasury, Shafik’s appointment signals Starmer is clearly tooling up for big battles to come on the economy.

Chief economic adviser

Morgan McSweeney

McSweeney remains the most powerful member of the prime minister’s inner circle, his most trusted adviser and the man he credits for the sweeping election victory. But those close to McSweeney admit that his skill is strategy and politics rather than delivery and policy, and they say there has been a major need to bolster the operation with experts in driving through delivery of radical change.

McSweeney and his team – as well as Starmer himself – have been privately extremely frustrated with the pace of change in Whitehall since Labour came to office, and part of the shake-up is giving the prime minister more direct oversight of delivery.

Prime minister’s chief of staff

Steph Driver

Driver has long been Starmer’s most trusted adviser on communications and is well liked across all of Whitehall’s special advisers. There is a some discomfort especially among female advisers that Allan appears to have been promoted over Driver, when she had previously shared the role with James Lyons, who is leaving the government.

Driver, who never left Starmer’s side during the election campaign and was responsible for briefing the prime minister, is still likely to remain the day-to-day communications frontline. “As far as the rest of government is concerned, Steph Driver will continue to lead comms,” one adviser said.

Director of communications

Stuart Ingham

Ingham is Starmer’s longest-serving adviser, having joined for his leadership bid and led the party’s policy team in opposition. He is extremely close to his boss and has survived numerous attempts by newcomers to oust him.

He will move to the political team, headed by McSweeney, which also includes the director of political strategy, Paul Ovenden. “Stuart will be freed from managing the team and will be advising him directly,” one source said. “Keir is keeping the people he trusts close.”

Outgoing policy chief becoming senior counsel to the PM and director of strategic interventions

Vidhya Alakeson

Alakeson is said to be the mastermind behind the No 10 shake-up, in consultation with the Whitehall fixer and Starmer confidante Louise Casey. The changes at the top are said in part to have been prompted by the success of hiring Jonathan Powell, the former Blair chief of staff, who has been Starmer’s foreign policy adviser and a much-needed experienced hand in the sometimes chaotic first year in power for Labour.

Alakeson will take on the expanded and additional responsibilities for policy and delivery alongside Nin Pandit, who had been the prime minister’s private secretary. However, a new policy unit director is expected to be appointed in the coming months.

Deputy chief of staff

Louise Casey

It had been long rumoured that Starmer had hoped to appoint Lady Casey to a permanent role in his team, or even as a minister. She has long been an informal adviser and was with him on election night. Casey has a formidable reputation for her inquiries undertaken on behalf of numerous governments, on subjects from grooming gangs to racism in the Metropolitan police.

But instead she has taken on the brief of outlining a new social care system – not expected to report back for two years or more. Casey is said to have been providing advice on how Starmer can better structure No 10, including the idea of a chief secretary.

Informal strategic adviser

Who’s out?

James Lyons

The former Daily Mirror and Sunday Times journalist came to No 10 after a successful comms career with the NHS and TikTok. He replaced Matthew Doyle, who had the role for years in opposition. He departs after less than a year, after a summer in which Nigel Farage grabbed at least 22 front pages, with very little to show from the government.

Director of strategic communications

Liz Lloyd

Lloyd will leave for another role in government after months in No 10 where her focus was delivery. Lloyd had been Blair’s deputy chief of staff but clashed with the soft-left thinktank graduates in the policy unit, including Ingham. Insiders complained that it had long been unclear who was fully in charge of policy – Ingham or Lloyd.

Director of policy, delivery and innovation

Olaf Henricson-Bell

A senior civil servant, Henricson-Bell will stay in government but is expected to move to a new role, having previously been at the Treasury. Henricson-Bell is the twin brother of Torsten Bell, the pensions minister, and it has been a long-running Westminster joke that the twins could one day end up running the Treasury as chancellor and permanent secretary.

Director of the No 10 policy unit