Some prime ministers believe it is healthy to rotate and retire their colleagues at frequent intervals. It reminds them who’s boss and keeps Whitehall officials sharp. Margaret Thatcher was in that category. Others, like David Cameron – hemmed in by his coalition partners – presided over a ministerially stable five years. Theresa May has taken so-called ministerial churn to a new level. She reinvented – perhaps needlessly – the Whitehall hardware to meet the demands of Brexit while creating safe spaces for awkward colleages. That meant a Department for Exiting the EU and a Department for International Trade, along with a Department for Business that absorbed the functions of the Department of Energy and Climate Change. Since then a veritable tumble dryer of ministers has put extraordinary strain on an underresourced government machine. The biggest loser in this game of pass the parcel is the Ministry of Justice. David Gauke is its sixth secretary of state since 2010. He brings with him two more new ministers. Matt Hancock is the sixth boss of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Dominic Raab the seventh housing minister. Every minister in the Cabinet Office is new. This wild exercise in power costs money and effectiveness that the government can ill afford.
