Pausing our focus on school closures for a moment: Amber de Botton has resigned from her post as director of communications.
The former broadcast journalist was hired less than a year ago, during the first few days of Mr Sunak’s tenure.
“I have decided it is the right time to move on,” she posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
She thanked Mr Sunak, his team and her Number 10 colleagues: “The professionalism and talent they display every day is exceptional.”
Ms de Botton was deputy head of politics at Sky News for five years until 2017, before working at ITV News as head of politics and then as head of news.
Unlike an impartial civil servant, she was a special adviser to the PM, able to give political advice to ministers, defend the government’s actions and criticise opposition parties.
Analysis: Sunak promoting people he can trust ahead of election
Replacing his top spin doctor with a long-term aide has set the tone for Rishi Sunak’s party reshuffle, according to deputy political editor Sam Coates.
Amber de Botton has left her post as director of communications to be replaced by Nerissa Chesterfield, who worked for the prime minister when he was chancellor, said Coates.
Ms de Botton was a political outsider and somewhat of a surprise appointment last year, he said, and the prime minister is looking for people “he can trust going into the next election”.
“We’re sort of in day two of the reshuffle at the top of the Conservative Party.”
He continued: “Rishi Sunak has been reaching for people who have perhaps been longer-term supporters of his.”
The move is part of a bigger unofficial “reset” to get the party in “better shape” ahead of election season, he added.
Nonetheless, Ms de Botton leaves behind “a legacy of more constructive relations with large parts of the media” than her predecessors under Liz Truss and Boris Johnson, said Coates.
Hospitals are safe, insists Nick Gibb
Back to reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), and it’s not just schools that are being affected – hospitals are too.
In fact, the government previously committed to rebuilding seven hospitals most affected by the material by 2030.
When asked by the BBC if hospitals are safe, schools minister Nick Gibb said: “Yes, they are. Hospitals are very large buildings. They have big and expert maintenance teams in those hospitals.
“They can use propping, and they are using propping so they can move patients from one ward to the other.
“It’s a very different estate from the school estate.”
Earlier this year, NHS Providers published a report calling for the “long-neglected” NHS estate in England to be brought “into the 21st century”.
It also described RAAC as presenting a “major and unjustifiable safety risk”.
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