ANALYSIS: Chop the dead wood and call in grizzled veterans – Express

But with a couple of notable exceptions, the recent flurry of resignations from Downing Street is better seen as the departure of the duds from the inner circle of Boris Johnson. His chief of staff, Dan Rosenfield, who was only in post for 13 months, has lacked the political antennae to succeed in such a crucial role. Meanwhile, the PM's outgoing principal private secretary Martin Reynolds organised the disastrous staff garden party of May 20, 2020, that has caused Johnson so much grief.

Jack Doyle, the disappearing press secretary, was alleged to have attended several Downing Street gatherings and was arguably personally compromised when devising some of the rather opaque "lines-totake" put out to journalists.

Munira Mirza, Johnson's newly-resigned head of policy, should by contrast be regarded as a bigger loss. Indeed, her leaving may actually indicate he has lost too few advisers.

For Mirza was believed to have become frustrated at the role of several "friends of Carrie Johnson" on the No 10 staff roster who thwarted her wish for the Prime Minister to take a stronger line on issues such as the woke onslaught against free speech and excessive political correctness in the public sector.

In the weeks before the current rash of departures, there had been two significant exits. One of them, Allegra Stratton, was hopelessly out of her depth as a putative No 10 spokeswoman - so obviously so that plans to make her the public face of the Government at daily televised press conferences had been aborted and she was scratching around for a new role.

But the resignation of Lord Frost as Brexit Secretary just before Christmas seems ever more telling. Like Mirza, he is a more substantial figure whose disenchantment was a sign of Downing Street having mislaid its overall sense of and direction. future of Boris Johnson as PM depends not much on who else he loses from a Downing Street team of advisers which still contains dead wood, but more on who he attracts as key replacements.

More grizzled veterans with understanding of the priorities of voters in the Red Wall seats that gave Johnson his majority would certainly not go amiss.

The arrival of a Willie Whitelaw figure who can prevent the Prime Minister from embarking on harebrained schemes like his bid to get Owen Paterson off the hook of a damning sleaze verdict would be a transformative event.

Though his rivals are circling in the Tory party, none has yet shown they have his ability to galvanise the nation as it faces difficult issues - from the Ukraine to the energy price crisis, from the impasse over the Northern Ireland Protocol to the crucial levelling-up agenda.

This time the Prime Minister needs to recruit the A-Team instead of a bunch of Yes Men to help him regain the initiative.

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ANALYSIS: Chop the dead wood and call in grizzled veterans - Express