Morning Report: A Labour reshuffle? And what’s happening this weekend?

Today looks set to be a relatively quiet end to a fairly busy first full week of 2013 – but it is enlivened, as is often the case, by John Mann MP.

John has written a piece this morning calling for a Labour reshuffle, and saying Ed Miliband needs to, “establish a credible economic policy and whether he can make the necessary dynamic changes to his front bench team.” Coupled with a sentence decrying “our unclear economic policy”, it’s hard not to see this as coded criticism of Ed Balls. Especially as the two people he’d like to see back in the Shadow Cabinet – David Miliband and Alastair Darling – have both been tipped as potential Shadow Chancellors. Mann also picks out three MPs he believes are future leadership material Umunna, Kendall and Jarvis.

My understanding is that John may be waiting a while to get a Labour reshuffle (conference season seems the most likely time) but there’s certainly a reshuffle on the way before the next election. Some members of the Shadow Cabinet should not be sitting too comfortably…

Elsewhere this morning, The Daily Mail has busies itself with attacking the “red-tape coalition” with 984 enquiries, reviews and consultations. Which makes Chris Grayling’s attack on Labour for having too many pilots seem a bit rich. Tristram Hunt has written for the FT comparing the talk of “shirkers” to Victorian times, and the Times (£) continues the fascination certain newspapers have with the earning potential of a certain former Prime Minister.

As for the weekend – Ed Miliband is speaking at the Fabian Society conference tomorrow (we’ll be covering it live) and he’ll be following that up with an appearance on Marr (interviewed by James Landale in Andrew Marr’s absence) on Sunday.