Brown's Cabinet...

[Michael Z]

Assuming Blair resigns and Gordon Brown becomes PM at some point in the next two-three years. What will Brown's cabinet look like? Will he make his long-time adviser Ed Balls Chancellor? And where will it leave Blairites such as John Reid and David Blunkett?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The two Ed's (Balls and Miliband) would be dead certs to get cabinet jobs IMO, as would Douglas Alexander.
Nick Brown would probably be back. Straw and Kelly could get promoted. Brown's been co-operating with the old Right of the Party (Prescott et al) a fair bit recently, so I'd suspect Johnson might get promoted again.

[minionofmidas]

Might some of the expelled lefties (Cook, Dobson?) be back?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Cook no; him and Brown don't get on very well for reasons no one apart from them understand. Dobbo... not sure, although it'd be a possibility.

I think Blunkett might stay in the cabinet; he's not too strongly tied to anyone except himself and seeing as he's the most popular politician on council estates he's a huge electoral asset (which is why Blair brought him back).

I'd like to see Clywd get a job.

[minionofmidas]

What's the deal with Blunkett's popularity?

[M]

The two Ed's (Balls and Miliband) would be dead certs to get cabinet jobs IMO, as would Douglas Alexander.
Nick Brown would probably be back. Straw and Kelly could get promoted. Brown's been co-operating with the old Right of the Party (Prescott et al) a fair bit recently, so I'd suspect Johnson might get promoted again.

What would it mean to promote Straw? Chancellor? Is anything else considered above the Foreign Ministry (aside from PM, of course)?

[Peter]

Darling would undoubtedly get one of the jobs in the top three since his Brown's Chief Lieutenant.

I don't think he would tolerate John Reid staying around, and bloody right too. Also that fat Labour party Chair whose name I can never remember - he'll probably go too.

Nick Brown as Chief Whip probably. Don't expect to see Short back, or Cook, there's some odd history there. I don't know about Straw - he's already been Home Secretary, and now Foreign Secretary for over 4 years - part of me says that he'll want to retire from cabinet politics before too long.

Douglas Alexander is a dead cert for a cabinet level job. Kelly obviously will remain in there. It'd be interesting to see what he did with Charles Clarke - probably a demotion to make way for his own Lieutenants.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Darling would undoubtedly get one of the jobs in the top three since his Brown's Chief Lieutenant.

You mean the badger? True. I forgot him.

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Apparently, Reid is likely to get the "Castle treatment"...

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Maybe not. Blair has tried to fire McCartney on several occasions but he's still there. He has powerful friends; namely John Prescott, the Old Right generally and the Unions. Brown needs to be very nice to the last two especially.