Balancing act Direction needed amid backflips and somersaults

an York-Smith, the former senior Treasury official Keir Starmer has appointed as his principal private secretary, is a qualified international gymnastics judge - a skillset that may come in handy as Labour limbers up for the formidable balancing act of Rachel Reeves's autumn budget.

- Heather Stewart

After a dizzying series of backflips on tax and spending, some of which were blamed squarely on the chancellor, the government is preparing to raise taxes - at the same time as acknowledging that with inflation on the rise again the public are still in the grip of a cost of living crisis.

As well as York-Smith, Starmer has pinched Reeves's No 2, Darren Jones, to be his own "chief secretary" - a previously non-existent job. Former Bank of England deputy governor Minouche Shafik, a well-respected economist, will be Starmer's economic adviser.

Economists and former government advisers welcomed the reshuffle, suggesting it was high time for Starmer to take more interest in the direction of economic policy. Jonathan Portes, a former government economist, said it was always a mistake to subcontract tax and spend entirely to the Treasury. "It is a well-functioning department staffed by people who know what they're talking about and if it's not politically challenged by No 10 things go wrong," he said.

"Because of the way the Treasury works, it's intellectually predisposed to do things that are not just politically counterproductive but economically counterproductive. You need somebody in No 10 to push back."