Keir Starmer’s first shadow cabinet reshuffle, following Labour’s damaging election losses in its traditional heartlands, has been widely seen as a messy affair.
Reshuffles are “moments when leaders have a chance to assert their authority”, says the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, but Starmer’s handling of it was “a mess that could have been avoided – and a knock to his authority he didn’t need”.
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It “began badly with a bust up with his deputy, Angela Rayner”, says Kuenssberg. Leaked plans to fire Rayner as the party’s chair and national campaigns co-ordinator prompted accusations on Saturday that she was being made a scapegoat for the party’s poor local election results.
However, by Sunday, Rayner – whose position as deputy leader is an elected one – appeared to come out of the row victorious. The line from Starmer loyalist Ian Murray, the shadow Scottish secretary, speaking to Sophy Ridge on Sky News yesterday, was that Rayner had not been sacked but “offered a significant promotion”.
The Times says Starmer “invented a 24-word job title” for her in the “reshuffle kerfuffle” – that of “deputy leader, shadow first secretary of state, shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and shadow secretary of state for the future of work”.
The announcement of further changes to the shadow cabinet was reportedly delayed as Starmer and Rayner held “an intense and often acrimonious day of negotiations”. And when the new team was announced, it seemed “overwhelmingly similar to its previous incarnation”, says The Times.
The most significant promotion was for Rachel Reeves, who moved from shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster to shadow chancellor.
Losers
Anneliese Dodds was demoted from shadow chancellor to party chair to make room for Reeves. The Daily Mirror predicted the move as long ago as March, when some Labour MPs told the newspaper they were “growing frustrated” with Dodds, amid fears that the Oxford East MP was “struggling to communicate the party’s direction”.
Meanwhile, Nick Brown, the 70-year-old “veteran chief whip who had held the role under Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Jeremy Corbyn and then Starmer, was dismissed”, and replaced by his deputy Alan Campbell, says The Times.
Valerie Vaz, shadow leader of the House of Commons, was replaced by Thangam Debbonaire, who had held the housing brief.
But some have suggested that Starmer himself might become the biggest loser of the reshuffle. Several MPs told The Guardian on Sunday that his “botched attempt to sideline Rayner had increased the chances he could face a leadership challenge in the coming months”.
The Telegraph notes that “he is not yet being openly challenged” but says “the warnings and the severity of criticism from the Left complicates his attempts to keep the party united, undercutting the stability of his position”.
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