This Cabinet reshuffle was expected to herald a new 'age of May' – and it failed to deliver

As she herself might have put it in more confident times, for the most part: 'Nothing has changed. Nothing has changed' – except, of course, Justine Greening is gone

It was an underwhelming day (PA)

The best summation of the predicament Theresa May found herself in as she approached the reshuffle of her ministers was offered in the 1990s by her predecessor John Major, who also led a divided minority Tory government in a party at war with itself over Europe.

During what he thought was an off-the-record conversation with a TV journalist, Major remarked of a previous bout of reshuffle fever: “I could bring in other people. But where do you think most of this poison is coming from? From the dispossessed and the never-possessed. You can think of ex-ministers who are going around causing all sorts of trouble. We don't want another three bastards out there.” Bastards, that is, being the Tory Eurosceptics of the 1990s, now rebranded as Brexiteers, just as awkward a squad as ever, even if refreshed by new blood and a new generation of headbangers.

So it wasn’t such a surprise that the Prime Minister confined herself to changes that were, in the main, only those that were absolutely necessary. She did not want any modern-day “bastards” out on the backbenches able to wreck whatever her European policy happens to be form day to day.

The likes of Priti Patel and Nicky Morgan, sacked ex-ministers on different wings of the party, are already displaying the kind of political animosity to the Prime Minister she can do without. “Bastards” would be too harsh a description of these politicians, but the point stands, and they may yet turn nastier.

Ms May, as she had to after the general election, has done the least she could to upset frail egos and the delicate balance of power in her Government. Did she need to have a de factor or de jure deputy prime minister, threatening to stir up a fresh round of envious jockeying for position among the other ambitious souls that form her Government? No – so she didn’t take the opportunity to make still more trouble for herself by appointing one.

Did she need to promote Jeremy Hunt as he presides over the worst crisis in the NHS for decades? Not really – so she skipped that one too, instead merely adding social care to his remit.

Where she was smart was in promoting, very gently, David Lidington to a Cabinet Office role, and, crucially, chairing Cabinet committees on Brexit that Mr Green used to attend. A modest though clever man, Mr Lidington's pastel personality and (apparent) lack of personal ambition is unlikely to alienate his colleagues. Like Damian Green, Mr Lidington, a former minister for Europe, was passionate pro-Remain campaigner, but has since reconciled himself to Government policy. In the world where Ms May has to carefully balance the different factions in her internal coalition of a party, he was the next best thing to a direct substitute for Mr Green – also an old-style pro-European, hopefully without the personal or political complications.

James Brokenshire stepped down for health reasons – and deserves best wishes for his recovery, so Karen Bradley has stepped in to cover his role in Northern Ireland. The PM did need a new party chairman, and thus Sir Patrick McLoughlin found himself, slightly belatedly, carrying the can for the mess that was the Prime Minister’s conference performance, as well as the failed general election campaign that was, in truth, run by Ms May and her coterie, and called prematurely and unnecessarily. That’s politics.

There was some attempt to rejuvenate the top table, though. James Cleverly has a surname that must make it difficult to live up to, but so far in his political career he has raised great expectations for his future. A crucial role as Deputy Chair of his party gives him the opportunity to show what potential he really has.

Few would, in truth, envy a remit that requires him to massively expand and attract new, younger and more diverse members to a party showing signs of near terminal decline on the ground. Whether he is the “digital native” man to create a Tory version of Momentum, capable of mobilising an army of radical youth impatient with the old ways of politics, remains to be seen.

New Party Chairman, Brandon Lewis, has enjoyed a substantial promotion, and, again, his media skills, thus far respected in the media village, will be tested in today’s gaffe-prone Tory organisation – after all, his first act was to rescind a tweet that had given his job to Chris Grayling. It said it all about a dysfunctional party ill at ease with the world of social media.

This was very much a Theresa May reshuffle, or rather a post-election Theresa May reshuffle. After she squandered her parliamentary majority, she might have by now found herself a new Chancellor and even Foreign Secretary, and kept Michael Gove within the safe confines of membership of the Brexit Select Committee. She now has to watch her step and obey the nods and winks about her choice of ministers given to her by the chair of the backbench 1922 committee, Sir Graham Brady.

The forced resignation of three of her senior colleagues last year made this minor freshening up of the Government inevitable, but it heralds no bold new “age of May”. She couldn’t even move the lacklustre Jeremy Hunt or the more modernising Justine Greening, who preferred to quit rather than take on Universal Credit for the DWP. The most radical move was also the most depressing – the appointment of Steve Baker as a kind of hard Brexit minister. Mr Baker makes up in ranting for what he lacks in rationale for his approach to economic policy, and is never a reassuring voice. It is a further sign of Number 10’s weakness that May has to make such a concession.

The Government remains without an agreed policy on Brexit, to give just one not-so-trivial example, and she is surrounded by men, usually, who want her job (though not too soon). As she herself might have put it in more confident times, for the most part: “Nothing has changed. Nothing has changed.”