LIVERPOOL, England — Keir Starmer’s new chief whip has promised to bring the job out of the “18th century” to win back the trust of restive Labour MPs.
In a rare interview, Jonathan Reynolds told POLITICO he wanted to approach the role differently than some of his predecessors, making more public appearances — usually banned for chief whips — and using a “carrot” rather than a stick approach to reunite the party.
Reynolds, whom Starmer moved from the jet-setting role of business and trade secretary earlier this month, is now responsible for discipline among the PM’s band of 401 MPs — including to push through controversial reforms to the welfare state.
The role of chief whip has long been associated with the subterfuge, low cunning and dark arts of British politics. It was former Conservative Chief Whip Gavin Williamson who infamously kept a black tarantula nicknamed Cronus in his parliamentary office.
In an interview at the POLITICO Pub, however, Reynolds said “there is no little black book” and that he would not be acquiring a sinister pet.
“I do think fundamentally, you treat people well as a starting point. Only a strange type of personality reacts badly to that,” he said.
“There’s a chance maybe at times to think about, ‘How can we do this differently?’”
Reynolds said there is “a need for more people to have insight into how things are being made,” and that while the Labour government has made many right calls, “have we told a story which is the sum of those parts and what links them together? I think there’s more to do on that side. I think colleagues want a lot of that to sort of be consistent and improved, frankly, in the second year going forward.”
He added: “I don’t think you necessarily have to do a job like it was in the 18th century, even though we kind of like that in British politics.
“In a job like this, you’re moving from running your own bit of the show to being in the center of a team of people. I spend a lot of time with the prime minister, obviously having now No. 9 Downing Street next door.”
He added: “I think if you treat people well and explain the choices, they understand us.”
Many ministers were privately furious at being moved in Starmer’s reshuffle, and Reynolds’ new job shifts him from a high-profile role as Britain’s chief trade envoy to a backroom fixer.
Asked if he was “gutted” at the surprise move, Reynolds emphasized his love of working with businesses, but said “look, it’s politics, right?”
He added that Starmer had “said he needed someone very close to him who also the PLP [Parliamentary Labour Party] would recognize and respond to in the role of chief whip. And, you know, the prime minister brings you up asking to do a job. You’ve got to do that.”
Reynolds insisted Starmer had as much fight in him as he did during the 2024 general election — despite a slump in the polls since — and it would “go to the next level.”
He also said he would “robustly” reject complaints from MPs about members of his whips’ office who are related to figures in No. 10, such as Imogen Walker — whose husband is Morgan McSweeney, Starmer’s chief of staff.
MPs have privately complained that as a result they can no longer trust the whips’ office to keep them safe from No. 10. Reynolds, however, said: “I think it should be okay to ask people to be treated on their own merits and their own skills.
“Every single one of those people in the whips’ office has an incredible political career already behind them.”
Reynolds, whose wife Claire has held senior positions in No. 10 and Labour, added: “People are complaining that you might be married to someone, but like my wife’s a political professional herself, you know, and I’ve had some experience of that. I think we should all be able to say, ‘Can we not be judged on our own merits and skills?’
“And I would absolutely ask anyone to challenge the credentials of any of my whips, because they’re all an incredible team of people recognized for their abilities and brought into a whips’ office to do a job which is essential to delivering on the government’s agenda.”
Reynolds — whose son is autistic and receives both PIP and Universal Credit benefits — said that the government’s botched welfare reforms were “not done in a way that took people with us. That’s why we had to have the changes, and those were important decisions that were necessary for the parliamentary party going forward.”
He said: “I thought there wasn’t sufficient recognition of perhaps my family’s situation, which is, I want to protect the most vulnerable people in this country, but I need public support for the system to do that, and that public support will not be there if we aren’t making sure that we’re running that in a good way.”
Asked how he had persuaded No. 10 to let him give an interview, Reynolds joked: “Well, I just asked the chief whip. I decided to give myself permission, I can’t be reporting to anyone, can I?”
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