LONDON — Long-serving Trade Minister Greg Hands was picked as a key lieutenant to Rishi Sunak as the U.K. prime minister embarked on a sweeping reform of the government machine.
Hands, who has served in a host of ministerial roles since becoming a Tory MP in 2010, will serve as Conservative Party chairman, stepping into the role left vacant following the sacking of Nadhim Zahawi amid a row over his tax affairs.
The new Tory chairman, who will be expected to keep the Conservative grassroots onside and get the party election-ready, has a formidable job ahead of him. The Conservatives are trailing the opposition Labour Party in the polls and face a difficult set of local elections in May. The party has cycled through three leaders in the past year alone.
In what will be seen as a clear bid to help the Conservatives cling on to the so-called ‘Red Wall’ seats the party nabbed from Labour in 2019, Sunak has also appointed Lee Anderson — a former miner and ex-Labour councillor known for his outspoken views on everything from immigration to social security — as deputy Tory chairman.
The pair’s elevation comes as Sunak reorganizes Whitehall in a bid to better meet the government’s list of pre-election priorities. Most notably, he has axed the standalone Department for International Trade (DIT) and created a new science, innovation and technology department under Michelle Donelan, the previous culture secretary.
In a statement, Downing Street said the restructure would “ensure the whole of government is geared up to deliver for the British people.”
DIT is being culled at a time when Britain is devoting less energy to striking new, post-Brexit trade deals, and is placing a greater focus on capitalizing on its existing pacts and trying to come up with a wider business investment strategy. Tory rising star Kemi Badenoch, who previously headed up DIT, will be the new business and trade secretary.
A standalone ministry tasked with ensuring Britain’s energy security has also been announced. Grant Shapps, who was previously business secretary, has been made Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, and the change comes as U.K. consumers grapple with sky-high energy costs in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Sunak, who spent time in Silicon Valley before becoming an MP, is also revamping Britain’s tech policy tools. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport loses the digital brief to the new ministry focused on science, innovation and technology. That, the government said, will be tasked with “turning scientific and technical innovations into practical, applicable solutions to the challenges we face.” Lucy Frazer, previously a leveling-up minister, will take over as culture secretary in a scaled-back department.
The tech overhaul takes place at a crucial time, with the government’s flagship Online Safety Bill making its way through the U.K. parliament, and amid concerns about delays to its long-awaited semiconductor strategy.
Labour reacted with bemusement to the civil service rejig. A senior Labour figure told POLITICO’s London Playbook that “such a big machinery of government change this close to an election is just daft. It takes loads of energy in Whitehall to get this stuff sorted and they basically won’t have time to do anything real before an election … but if they haven’t got any money, ideas or enough votes to actually do any work — then why not.”
