Labour is today reeling from Keir Starmer‘s explosive reshuffle with allies openly admitting it was a recognition the government was failing.
The PM is turning his attention to the junior ministerial ranks after pulling the pin on a huge Cabinet overhaul yesterday in the wake of Angela Rayner‘s resignation over her tax affairs.
Yvette Cooper was shifted from the key job of Home Secretary following a grim summer of protests over small boats and migrant hotels – to be replaced by harder-line Shabana Mahmood.
David Lammy was moved from the other great office of state of Foreign Secretary to take over from Ms Mahmood at justice, although he was given the consolation prize of Ms Rayner’s old deputy PM title.
A swathe of other senior ministers switched briefs as Sir Keir tried to rewire his team – although only two new names were added to the Cabinet.
The PM’s enforcer Darren Jones toured broadcast studios this morning insisting that it was ‘normal’ for governments to have a shake-up at this stage.
However, ex-Cabinet minister Lord Falconer, a long-time supporter of the premier, said Sir Keir knew he had to apply an ‘electric charge’ rather than simply making tweaks.
Keir Starmer is turning his attention to the junior ministerial ranks after pulling the pin on a huge Cabinet overhaul yesterday in the wake of Angela Rayner ‘s resignation
David Lammy was moved from the other great office of state of Foreign Secretary to take over from Ms Mahmood at justice, although he was given the consolation prize of Ms Rayner’s old deputy PM title
Yvette Cooper was shifted from the key job of Home Secretary following a grim summer of protests over small boats and migrant hotels – to be replaced by harder-line Shabana Mahmood
‘The reason it was much wider… was because there was a profound understanding by the PM that things need to change and they need to change urgently,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
‘You cannot avoid the proposition that we have not connected appropriately with the public.’
The Labour peer pointed to Nigel Farage’s claim at Reform conference in Birmingham yesterday that the PM could be forced to call a general election by 2027.
‘I don’t think that’s right, but if we haven’t got a sense of direction that connects quite quickly then we are in problems I think,’ Lord Falconer said.
The extraordinary scale of the changes sent Westminster into shock, after briefing that there would only be limited tweaks below Cabinet level this month.
Rachel Reeves was among just a handful of senior ministers to cling on to their roles, despite the Chancellor facing a welter of criticism over the stalling economy and fears the country is heading for a debt crisis.
Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden will now head up a ‘super-ministry’ including the DWP and skills responsibilities, which are being stripped from Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has given up his brief to Peter Kyle, becoming chief whip instead. Steve Reed goes from Environment to succeed Ms Rayner as Housing Secretary – with Emma Reynolds replacing him.
Ms Mahmood will now take charge of the critical Home Affairs brief, which could decide Labour’s fate
She and Douglas Alexander – who becomes Scottish Secretary – were the only new entrants to the Cabinet.
Asked whether the reshuffle was a sign of instability, Mr Jones told BBC Breakfast: ‘Look, I think it’s quite normal for governments to have a reshuffle about this time coming into government.’
He added: ‘Because of the former deputy prime minister’s resignation, the Prime Minister decided it was the decisive thing to do, to bring (the reshuffle) forward and to get it done on Friday, then to be able to move forward with the strongest team that we have around the Cabinet now leading on delivering the public’s priorities.’
Standards watchdog Sir Laurie Magnus concluded that Ms Rayner had tried to act with ‘integrity’ but still fell short of the standards required in government, failing to pay tens of thousands of pounds of stamp duty on her new seaside flat.
In a letter to Sir Keir, Ms Rayner stressed the ‘strain’ that the furore had put on her family. She said she ‘deeply regretted’ not having sought expert tax advice about the implications of a trust – even though she had received an explicit recommendation to do so.
Ms Rayner quit her posts of Deputy PM, Housing Secretary and deputy Labour leader. There is now expected to be a potentially divisive election for the last role.
Downing Street released a handwritten response from the premier saying he was ‘sad’ about the circumstances because Ms Rayner had ‘given her all’, but it was the ‘right decision’.
The government has made some ‘considerable missteps’ and it must acknowledge this, Labour MP Andy McDonald says.
The PM’s enforcer Darren Jones toured broadcast studios this morning insisting that it was ‘normal’ for governments to have a shake-up at this stage
McDonald says the new cabinet needs to re-focus on serious issues without being drawn into solely responding to the threat of Reform UK.
People are not ‘looking at a Labour government thinking this is a government that is delivering for them,’ he tells Radio 4’s Today programme.
‘[The public] want to see that improvement in their material living conditions,’ he adds. ‘There’s been some considerable missteps, and we’ve got to acknowledge that.’
Kemi Badenoch said Labour appeared to be descending into ‘civil war’. The Conservative leader added: ‘Phase two of Starmer’s Government didn’t even last three days.
‘He was too weak to fire the Deputy Prime Minister, even after he was told she broke the ministerial code, and now he’s shuffling deckchairs around on his sinking government.
‘The Labour Party is now engaged in a civil war for its deputy leadership. All of which will be an enormous distraction from the problems facing Britain, with the cost of borrowing reaching its highest point in decades, and inflation and unemployment rising.’
Former Tory Cabinet minister Sir James Cleverly added: ‘There are so many sideways moves in this reshuffle. Starmer can’t claim it’s about promoting new talent, or about removing dead wood.
‘So it can only be that he put people into the wrong jobs last year.’
Nigel Farage said Labour was now ‘deep in crisis’ and ‘not fit to govern’. He added: ‘Despite all the promises that this would be a new, different kind of politics is as bad – if not worse – than the one that went before.’
