British ministers come and go almost as often as football managers
Secretaries of state change jobs too frequently—and the talent pool they are drawn from is too shallow
THE BIG story of Boris Johnson’s first ministerial reshuffle on February 13th was the unexpected loss of his chancellor, Sajid Javid. But another feature is the acceleration of the ministerial merry-go-round. The Institute for Government (IFG), a think-tank, calculates that the average length of service of a senior minister in the past decade has fallen to less than two years—closer to that of a football manager than of a company boss (see chart). Junior ministers typically last even less time, frequently moving on after only a year.
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Revolving doors”
Britain February 22nd 2020
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