On a day all three main party leaders mounted reshuffles, a ruthless Ed Miliband displayed his political authority by imposing sweeping changes to his shadow cabinet, including the demotion of the three leading Blairites and the high risk appointment of the relatively untested Tristram Hunt to the key brief of shadow education secretary.

Nick Clegg also sprung a surprise by sacking his Scotland secretary Michael Moore and replacing him ahead of next year's Scottish referendum with his more combative chief whip Alistair Carmichael in a wide-ranging reshuffle of Conservative and Liberal Democrat ministers in the coalition government. Moore's dismissal was the only change at cabinet level.

Clegg also fired the Home Office minister Jeremy Browne, a leading advocate of Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition, astonishing and infuriating the home secretary Theresa May by replacing him with Norman Baker, the leftwinger and dogged campaigner for seemingly lost causes.

David Cameron did not consult May about Clegg's decision.

The prime minister tried to change the public profile of his middle ranks by giving jobs to women, including former journalist Esther McVey, promoted to employment minister, where she will have to defend the work programme and hail improving jobs figures. Other women promoted by Cameron include Nicky Morgan to the Treasury; Anna Soubry, who becomes the first woman MP to be appointed to the Ministry of Defence; and Jane Ellison to public health minister where she will have to hold the line on plain cigarette packets and minimum alcohol prices. The resolutely male Tory whips office was given an improved gender balance with the appointment of Claire Perry and Amber Rudd and the promotion of Karen Bradley.

Appearing on ITV's The Agenda last night, Cameron said the reshuffle had been an opportunity to bring forward some fresh talent.

"What you do is refresh the team and I've got a talented bunch of MPs and it's right some of them should be serving in the government," he said.

"There was a mixture of people from all sorts of backgrounds and walks of life. The main thing is are they qualified to do the job and I think they will prove that."

While the changes in the Tory middle ranks are designed to give the party a less male hue, Miliband's reforms are likely to be seen as politically more significant. Stephen Twigg, Liam Byrne and Jim Murphy, all Blairites, were demoted, the first two leaving the shadow cabinet.

Hunt, a shadow education minister since April, replaces Twigg just two years after Twigg himself was appointed. Seen as a party moderniser, Hunt has in effect a little over a year to carve out a distinct policy that does not alienate the local government base, parents or teaching unions.

Andy Burnham remains shadow health secretary, despite claims his record as health secretary in Gordon Brown's government damaged him too badly for him to stay. The Tories have been attempting to show he covered up malpractices in the NHS, which Burnham denies.

Rachel Reeves, the former shadow chief secretary, replaces Byrne as shadow work and pensions secretary, one of the toughest jobs in the shadow cabinet as George Osborne tries to corner Labour as the party of welfare and borrowing.

She will need to set out more detail on how a Labour cap on welfare would work, as well as try to continue to discredit the government for the flawed introduction of universal credit. Vernon Coaker, an undersung figure with strong support in the leader's office, is to replace Murphy as shadow defence secretary, one of the campaign managers for the leadership election of the now departed David Miliband. Murphy takes the related, but politically less contentious role of shadow international secretary. Chris Leslie, a former minister, becomes shadow chief secretary. An increasingly likely source of Labour savings may be the cancelling of the HS2 high speed line, as Maria Eagle, shadow transport secretary and HS2 supporter, is shifted to environment.

Miliband also announced his team to run the 2015 election, making the shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander his election co-ordinator and drafting in Spencer Livermore, who left No 10 after Brown decided not to call an election in 2007 and more recently strategy executive at Blue Rubicon, to run the war room as the counterpoint to the Tories' Lynton Crosby.