Overview
- The Chief Whip set out the changes in a letter to Labour MPs on Monday, July 27, and named Sir Nic Dakin as the Prime Minister’s senior Parliamentary Private Secretary.
- Midgley said the goal is to ‘strengthen and elevate’ PPSs so they better support ministers and the government’s agenda as part of a wider culture-change drive.
- The reforms would allow PPSs more media appearances and parliamentary activity on national policy, but each instance must be agreed with departmental media advisers and cleared by Number 10.
- A cohort of junior PPSs was confirmed, including regional appointees such as Lola McEvoy at DCMS and Mary Kelly Foy to Matthew Pennycook’s team, reflecting team-building and local political integration.
- PPSs remain unpaid and bound by collective responsibility, so the change expands their duties without creating new ministerial pay or removing existing institutional controls.