Cabinet reshuffle: how do the Tory and Labour frontbenches match up?

Rishi Sunak’s cabinet reshuffle marks the start of a fresh round of clashes between the Labour and Conservative frontbenches.

The new prime minister has replaced a third of Liz Truss’s cabinet in “an attempt to reset the government” following her “calamitous 49-day premiership”, said The Telegraph’s political editor Ben Riley-Smith. Sunak has removed “key allies” of Truss and Boris Johnson and “rewarded some loyal supporters with top jobs”, wrote the BBC’s Paul Seddon.

But while the arrival of Britain’s first ethnic-minority prime minister has been heralded as a milestone for diversity, it “looks like Rishi has a woman problem”, an insider told The Sun. With just seven women among the 22 full-time members of the new cabinet, “it’s like Boris’s cabinet, without Boris”, the source reportedly quipped.

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On the opposite side of the despatch box, Labour leader Keir Starmer has told his shadow cabinet to use their tried-and-tested “stock of well-honed attack lines” against Sunak, according to The Guardian’s Jessica Elgot. But new tactics may come into play as each member of the Labour team squares up against their Tory counterpart.

Home office: Suella Braverman vs. Yvette Cooper

Braverman arrived back in the Home Office as home secretary just days after quitting the role for breaking the ministerial code. The Telegraph’s leader column welcomed Braverman’s chance “to prove her abilities” after she was forced to resign “over a technicality”.

But Cabinet Secretary Simon Case was “livid” about her swift return, The Times reported .And charities have accused Sunak of “amping up the cruelty” in his new cabinet by bringing the right-winger back into the fold, said The Independent’s home affairs editor Lizzie Dearden.

Braverman made a bid for the top job back in July, but was eliminated from the Tory leadership race in the second round after attracting only 27 backers. By contrast, her Labour counterpart has been tipped as a future leader of the opposition party.

Last year Cooper “received an outpouring of support for asking a series of powerful questions” about Covid to the then home secretary, Priti Patel, said Indy100. Cooper has also laid into the decision to appoint Braverman to the role, accusing Sunak of putting “party before country”.

Foreign office: James Cleverly vs. David Lammy

Cleverly has retained his role as foreign secretary despite having regularly courted controversy over the years. In 2010, he was forced to apologise after tweeting that Lib Dem deputy leader Simon Hughes was a “dick”. In 2019, Cleverly himself came under attack on social media for dismissing Ken Loach’s benefits film I, Daniel Blake as “a work of fiction”.

Indeed, Cleverly is regularly portrayed on social media as “an unusually stupid politician”, wrote Ailbhe Rea The New Statesman.

Lammy has attracted his fair share of criticism too. In 2019, he was criticised for saying that comparing the Tory party’s European Research Group (ERG) to the Nazis was “not strong enough”.

But Lammy has been applauded for his performance and policies as shadow foreign secretary since taking on the role last year. Environmental campaigners welcomed his vow at the Labour conference in September to introduce a “green dimension” to foreign policy so that “never again will we be dependent on fossil fuel dictators”.

Treasury: Jeremy Hunt vs. Rachel Reeves

Hunt, who stays on as chancellor, is “seen as a steady hand, so keeping him could be an attempt to reassure the markets”, said Sky News’s Faye Brown. Since being parachuted in by Truss earlier this month to replace Kwasi Kwarteng, Hunt has “won plenty of praise from both his own party and even grudging respect from those opposing him”, added the i news site’s Paul Waugh.

Yet both of Hunt’s tilts at the party leadership ended in failure. And while he was previously was Britain’s longest-serving health secretary, he was also “very possibly” the “most unpopular”, said The Times, with healthcare staff accusing him of driving medics out of the profession.

As Sunak’s new cabinet now settles in, Hunt’s opposite number “is convincing the City they can bank on her”, said The Sunday Times. Following a “whirlwind tour of breakfasts, lunches and dinners with captains of industry”, former Bank of England economist Reeves has “come to be seen as an unflashy but credible contender for No. 11”, according to the paper.

Her reported success marks a major reversal in fortunes for Reeves, who finished in fourth place in the 2006 Bromley and Chislehurst by-election, as Labour’s support fell from 10,241 votes to 1,925 – the worst performance for a governing party since 1991.

Department for Levelling Up: Michael Gove vs. Lisa Nandy

Secretary of State for Levelling Up Gove has become the Tories’ “undisputed comeback king” after being “recalled to the cabinet following his latest spell in the wilderness”, said The Telegraph’s associate editor Gordon Rayner.

“It’s stating the obvious but the reason he keeps being brought back into the fold is because he gets stuff done,” an unnamed ally told the paper, “and there are precious few ministers who you can say that about.”

But Nandy is also a “formidable performer”, said Politico’s Eleni Courea.

The Labour shadow minister is “neither from the ‘Corbynista’ nor the more right-wing ‘Blairite’ side of the party”, the Financial Times said. The Guardian agreed that the “refreshingly untribal” Nandy has the “pragmatism and ability to bridge divides”.

Deputy PM: Dominic Raab vs. Angela Rayner

Reappointed deputy PM after just a few months on the sidelines, Raab has received mixed reviews for his performances in the chamber. In April 2020, he took over prime ministerial responsibilities while then Tory leader Johnson was hospitalised with Covid.

Politico’s Annabelle Dickson reported that according to “half a dozen current and former colleagues” of ex-lawyer Raab, he was “a forensic stand-in for the prime minister, albeit one who sometimes lacks charm”.

Raab has also served as foreign secretary but was demoted to justice secretary last September, following criticism of his handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Rayner has trodden a sometimes rocky political road too. Long-running tensions between Rayner and Starmer came to a head when he sacked her as party chair and national campaign coordinator following Labour’s poor local election results in 2021. Months later, she was criticised for describing Tories as “homophobic, racist, misogynistic … scum” at the Labour conference.

Yet Rayner has also been praised for her plain-speaking style and has performed well against Raab in the Commons. “Rayner skewers Raab at PMQs,” Isabel Hardman reported in The Spectator following a clash in July.