By GREG HEFFER, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT and JASON GROVES, POLITICAL EDITOR
Sir Keir Starmer is facing a backlash over the 'needlessly cruel' treatment of female aides in Downing Street.
Nin Pandit, the Prime Minister's principal private secretary (PPS), is leaving the role just 10 months after being appointed by Sir Keir as his gatekeeper.
She is the third senior staff member to be replaced by Sir Keir in less than a year.
It follows the departure of Sue Gray as the PM's chief of staff in October last year, while Sir Keir also saw his communications chief, Matthew Doyle, resign in March.
News of Ms Pandit's exit was accompanied by a brutal briefing to the BBC that Sir Keir had become concerned she was 'ineffective' as his PPS.
But No10 strongly pushed back against those claims, which triggered a backlash among senior officials.
A source close to No10 told The Telegraph there was frustration inside Downing Street over how the replacement of Ms Pandit had been managed.
They told the newspaper it was a 'bad look' for Downing Street to 'mishandle' the departure of two senior women in the space of less than a year.
They added that the briefings against Ms Pandit to the media were 'inaccurate and needlessly cruel'.
One Whitehall source told the Daily Mail that Ms Pandit had been 'treated appallingly'.
'She is a brilliant, dedicated civil servant,' the source said. 'She has never courted a public profile so to brief against her publicly in this way is just appalling.'
Sir Keir Starmer is facing a backlash over the 'needlessly cruel' treatment of female aides in Downing Street.
Nin Pandit is expected to be replaced by the senior Treasury official Dan York-Smith in a bid to ensure No 10 has greater oversight of the Budget.
It comes after Sue Gray quit as the PM's chief of staff in October last year, while Sir Keir also saw his communications chief, Matthew Doyle, resign in March.
Ms Pandit is expected to be replaced by the senior Treasury official Dan York-Smith in a bid to ensure No 10 has greater oversight of the Budget.
One insider said the move was designed to prevent the PM being 'blindsided' by the Treasury again.
It followed complaints that there was too little consideration of controversial moves by Chancellor Rachel Reeves, such as scrapping the winter fuel allowance and slashing disability benefits, both of which had to be dropped.
Sir Keir is also poised to implement a major reshuffle of his junior ministerial team when he returns from holiday next week in a bid to revive his flagging government.
Some ministers are also pushing for the removal of Cabinet Secretary Chris Wormald, who was appointed by Sir Keir in December last year.
One Cabinet source described Sir Chris as 'a plodder, when we need a radical'.
Ms Pandit was head of the No 10 policy unit under Rishi Sunak and previously served in senior roles at NHS England.
During the Covid pandemic she was singled out by Dominic Cummings as 'one of the brilliant women around the table'.
Downing Street said Ms Pandit would be taking up a new role leading on the delivery of Labour's five 'missions' and reporting directly to Sir Keir.
A No 10 source insisted she retained the PM's 'full trust and backing'.
The source said her new role was being created because the PM 'wants to take direct oversight of how the Government's priorities are being delivered.'
The role of principal private secretary is one of the most powerful behind-the-scenes jobs in government, controlling access to the PM and his diary and effectively running the civil service operation in No 10.
Previous incumbents include Lord Case and the late Sir Jeremy Heywood, who both went on to run the civil service as cabinet secretary.
The shake-up comes as polling suggests support for Labour has reached a new low, following a summer in which the Government allowed Nigel Farage's Reform UK party to dominate the news agenda with a series of eye-catching announcements.
A YouGov poll this week put support for Labour on just 20 per cent - the lowest since the election, and far behind Reform on 28 per cent.
The slump follows a series of embarrassing U-turns and failure to end the cost of living crisis.
John McTernan, a former No10 aide to Tony Blair, yesterday said the PM was right to reshuffle his team as there had 'not been a grip on domestic policy'.
He told BBC Radio Four's World at One show: 'There's a thing about Keir where if you look across his career as party leader, he doesn't always get it right first (time) but when he decides he needs to change, he moves quickly.'