Labour’s reshuffle should be next week – but it could start today….

Labour conference is over, and shadow ministers have returned to their constituencies. But by the time they return to Westminster, some of them may be in different roles, and some of them may be out on their ear. Yesterday Miliband refused to confirm that Andy Burnham would be staying on as Shadow Health Secretary – despite being incredibly popular within the party in that role. Seemingly only Ed Balls is guaranteed to stay put.

Labour’s reshuffle is coming, at long last. 8 months after we first wrote about it, the date is near.

And that will be welcomed by shadow ministers and their staff – even those who are worried about being reshuffled out of a job. They’ve been living with the reshuffle axe dangling over their necks for months now, and frankly some of them want this over and done with. Others blame the reshuffle speculation for the overly quiet shadow cabinet summer. Many of them didn’t have much planned, it seems, as they didn’t expect to be still in post by the time summer rolled around.

Some are about to be put out of their misery. Others about to be elevated to the big leagues.

But when?

The smart money says Miliband will conduct his reshuffle next Thursday – the day after Tory conference finishes. That means he’ll have time to talk with colleagues and receive resignation letters from the departed on Wednesday afternoon whilst the media bandwagon is still in Manchester. He’ll then aim to get his shadow cabinet out as a single list – preferably without leaks – on Thursday morning, leaving the rest of the week to nail down the junior shadow teams. However, the odds of the whole list appearing without half of the roles leaking are long, to say the least. MPs talk. So do their staff. We will, of course, be running our customary liveblog…

Another alternative time that has been mooted is….today. That’s right. Everyone has just got home from Labour conference, physically exhausted after a long week on the coast. A reshuffle today would show a sense of momentum but somewhat makes a mockery of speeches that were given by shadow cabinet members just a day ago. It is to be hoped that Ed will spare MPs – and those of us who write about the party – another exhausting day of speculation.

That said, if he hasn’t started his reshuffle by next week, we’ll all be telling him to hurry up and get on with it…