By Justin Madders

MP for Ellesmere Port

THE definition of the word ‘change’ – in a political context anyway – will clearly need to be called into question following Rishi Sunak’s Cabinet reshuffle.

Just a few weeks ago the Prime Minister told the Conservative Party conference in Manchester that he was the PM for change. A hard sell for a party that's been in power for 13 years but little did we know then that his version of change involved bringing back a former Prime Minister into high office as Foreign Secretary.

Cast your mind back to when David Cameron lived in 10 Downing Street – until he resigned in 2016 after the country decided to vote for Brexit against his wishes.

Well now he is coming back into the Cabinet at Mr Sunak’s invitation, even though he is no longer an MP or even a member of the House of Lords. So he will first have to be ‘ennobled’ as Lord something or other. Otherwise he will not be able to answer questions in the Lords on behalf of the Government.

The re-elevation of David Cameron, formerly MP for Witney in Oxfordshire until 2016, has taken away some of the attention from the much anticipated sacking as Home Secretary of Suella Braverman MP.

It is widely believed that Mrs Braverman was sacked after she defied No 10 over an article she wrote in The Times accusing the Metropolitan Police of bias in the policing of protests. She failed to make changes to her comment piece that Mr Sunak’s media people had requested. She had long been accused of stoking tensions ahead of protests in London which took place over the Armistice and Remembrance weekend.

Many people believe, however, that Mrs Braverman was positioning herself to be sacked as Home Secretary – for the second time – so she can prepare the ground for a challenge to become leader of the Conservative Party herself. She is well-known to be to the right of the party, and in bringing back the likes of David Cameron, Rishi Sunak is telling the Conservatives he wants to be seen on the centre stage in all senses of the expression. If he does try and position himself in this way then his Parliamentary Party will not stand for it and there is likely to be talk of no confidence votes in the Prime Minister, until that election is called.

I believe none of the supposed changes in the Tory party will wash with the British public who have made it crystal clear that the change they want to see is the date to be set for the next General Election,

It matters little who is sitting around the Cabinet table following the Sunak reshuffle and the latest merry ground of Ministers will not act a substitute for failure in Government. What really matters, in the immediate term, is which measures will be introduced by Jeremy Hunt MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he introduces his Autumn Statement next Wednesday, November 22, in the hope of getting us out of the mess we have been in since the disastrous Mini-Budget introduced by the Conservatives placed many family and other people’s budgets into chaos.

Far too many of my constituents are contacting me to say they just cannot carry on as they are. They are desperate for help.