UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer overhauled his ministerial team on Friday in a bid to reset his embattled government after deputy premier Angela Rayner resigned for underpaying a property tax.
Rayner, a figurehead among Labour’s left-wing base, quit after an investigation found she had breached the ministerial code over the purchase of a flat in southern England.
Her departure prompted Starmer to carry out the first major cabinet reshuffle of his stuttering 14-month-old premiership, during which the hard-right Reform UK party has overtaken Labour in popularity.
Starmer replaced Rayner as deputy with foreign minister David Lammy, whose post as Britain’s top diplomat will now be taken by interior minister Yvette Cooper, Downing Street announced.
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood from Labour’s right wing will succeed Cooper at the Home Office, while Lammy will also take on the justice brief, Number 10 added.
The shake-up comes after Rayner’s resignation dealt the latest blow to Starmer´s flagging government, which has lurched from one storm to another since he became prime minister in July last year, ending 14 consecutive years of Conservative rule.
It has been forced to U-turn on welfare reforms and fuel benefits for the elderly and is struggling to achieve its overarching aim of firing up Britain’s economy, with a painful budget looming on the horizon.
‘Deep regret’
Labour has also failed to stop undocumented migrants arriving on small boats, which has bolstered support for Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage.
That task now falls to Mahmood.
Rayner disclosed on Wednesday that she had underpaid stamp duty on an £800,000 seaside apartment in Hove, near Brighton, and had referred herself to the government´s independent ethics adviser.
The admission followed days of reports suggesting that she had saved £40,000 ($53,000) by removing her name from the deeds of another property.
Ethics chief Laurie Magnus concluded that Rayner had failed to “heed the caution” of legal advice that said she was liable for a lower surcharge, but qualified that this was not expert tax advice.
Her failure to seek further guidance meant he considered the “code to have been breached”, Magnus wrote.
“I accept that I did not meet the highest standards,” Rayner told Starmer in her resignation letter, adding she would also be stepping down as housing minister and deputy leader of the Labour Party.
“I deeply regret my decision to not seek additional specialist tax advice,” she added.
Starmer told her he was “very sad” to lose her from government, but added: “You will remain a major figure in our party”.
‘Complexity’
Rayner, 45, has three sons, one of whom was born prematurely and is registered blind with lifelong special needs.
She said that after her 2023 divorce, she sold her part of the family home to a trust fund set up for her son to secure the specially adapted house for her child´s future. She then used the money to help buy the flat.
Rayner paid less tax because she claimed the flat was her main home rather than a second home. She later conceded this was wrong since her son is under 18 and therefore she was deemed to still have an interest in the former family home.
Rayner grew up in Stockport on the outskirts of Manchester in northwest England, living in one of the area´s most deprived social housing complexes. She left school with no qualifications after becoming pregnant at 16.
Her straight-talking style has proved popular with working-class voters and meant she is often talked of as a potential future Labour leader.
Starmer also changed the environment, business, and science and technology briefs, among others, and sacked two ministers from his cabinet.
Patrick Diamond, a former Downing Street policy adviser, said the reshuffle was “a clear sign” that Starmer feels his government has so far been “unsatisfactory, and ministers urgently need to get a grip of the government machinery to deliver substantive policy change”.
“Yet the aftershocks of Rayner’s resignation, not least electing a new deputy leader of the Labour party, may well create further turbulence, undermining the government’s ability to deliver in the year ahead,” he told AFP.