With our first change of governing party for fourteen years, the cast of characters at the top of government has been changed irrevocably. But who is who in Labour land? Here is your guide to the most influential figures in the Labour party and how they might shape the future of the country.
Sir Keir Starmer
He is the prime minister. Will he be a good one? Time will tell.
Rachel Reeves
The shadow chancellor was a relatively late addition to the Starmer team, joining in a 2021 reshuffle. She has since proved herself invaluable to his power-seeking project, assuaging financial markets with her strict fiscal rules and convincing CV (she used to work at the Bank of England, as she keeps telling everyone).
Starmer and Reeves are still thick as thieves, mirroring the PM/Chancellor dynamic of David Cameron and George Osborne rather than Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. But will peace and harmony prevail between No 10 and No 11 Downing Street for the next five years?
Morgan McSweeney
Having just won Labour its first election in 19 years, the party’s campaign director could easily go private and sell his political skills to centre-Left parties across the world. Instead McSweeney will likely take a role in government and try to make a success of the next five years. A skilled political organiser who started out challenging the BNP in East London, McSweeney rose with Starmer through the Labour party, first backing his leadership campaign and eventually running its general election effort. Starmer will want to keep him around.
Sue Gray
A veteran civil servant, Sue Gray shocked Whitehall when she jumped ship to support Labour last year. As Starmer’s Chief of Staff, she has brought a tough management style to the top of the Labour party, ruthlessly implementing the will of the leader and prosecuting leakers and other troublemakers. Given Labour has been out of power for 14 years and most of its MPs can’t remember what the inside of No 10 looks like, Gray’s deep understanding of the machinery of government will be indispensable. (Gray bought fully into the Labour project — her son, Liam Conlon, has just been elected as a Labour MP.)
Victoria Starmer
Journalists have been warned that the prime minister’s wife might not be taking a traditional “first lady” role, hanging off the PM’s arm at public engagements. She has a career of her own, as an NHS occupational therapist, to be getting on with. Nevertheless Victoria Starmer will be a rock for our family-first PM and their Friday night dinners, which he said he will try to protect from work, will provide an important bit of down time.
Angela Rayner
As Deputy Prime Minister, Rayner has a fancy sounding title but no real constitutional role. She will spend much of her time working on the “New Deal For Working People”, a personal project to improve workers’ rights which she is determined to push through. Because she was directly elected by Labour members as their deputy leader, Rayner is the only person in Labour other than Keir Starmer who has their own mandate and power base — this makes her essentially unsackable. For how long will she work with Sir Keir before realising the extent of her own power? The ups and downs of their relationship will be a key dynamic of the next few years, Blair v Brown style.
David Lammy
The shadow foreign secretary (read our interview with him, in ES Magazine) has been busily working on his vision for Britain’s world strategy before even getting his foot in the door of the Foreign Office. With the help of his policy adviser Ben Judah, a former Evening Standard columnist, Lammy has developed the concept of “progressive realism”, balancing Left-wing ideals with practical necessity, which he hopes to export across the world. Sir Keir has shown little interest in foreign affairs, and has stumbled when questioned on issues like Gaza, so Lammy may be left to get on with it at FCDO.
Matthew Doyle
Director of Communications for the Labour Party, Doyle is certain to become Director of Communications/Press Secretary at 10 Downing Street, the same role that Alastair Campbell performed for Tony Blair. Because of his bombastic style and large ego, Campbell was regularly written up by excitable journalists as the Rasputin secretly running the government. There will be no such feverishness around Doyle, a confident and softly-spoken operator who has stayed the course in opposition.
Alastair Campbell
Speaking of Alastair Campbell, he will be back in this Labour government but as an eminence grise, rather than a major player. Never short of words, the spin doctor-turned-podcaster will have plenty of advice for the new brooms. It remains to be seen whether his podcast with former Tory Rory Stewart, The Rest Is Politics, will survive a Labour government. While the two hosts have been political outsiders under the Tories, the pair have previously discussed the difficulties that will be created when Campbell’s Labour friends are running the country.
Tom Baldwin
He was seen everywhere Starmer was on the campaign, has already written his biography and might well be writing an account of the election and first term of a Labour government. A former top adviser to Ed Miliband when he was leader and before that a Times journalist, Baldwin boasts perhaps more intimate knowledge of Keir Starmer’s thought process than anyone outside his tight-knit circle of family and personal friends.
Tony Blair
It seems the former PM never got over leaving Number 10. Reportedly, he still receives a prime ministerial “red box” from his staff at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, updating him on world affairs and the like. At 71, Sir Tony shows no sign of slowing down and he will be sticking his oar into the Labour government. He has offered some advice to Sir Keir Starmer and the pair appeared in conversation together at the Future of Britain conference last year. Expect his interest to pique now Labour is back in power.
Katharine Viner
The embattled editor of the Guardian, who seems constantly to be fighting a culture war in her own newspaper, will at least become much more influential with Labour in power. The left-leaning broadsheet can likely expect greater access than Tory rivals, who have enjoyed 14 years at the top.
Douglas Alexander
The former shadow foreign secretary who lost his seat to the SNP in 2015. He’s now back after nine years spent working in top universities and think tanks, thinking about the future of Labour and the left. He will no doubt have strong thoughts about the foreign policy direction of the Labour government even if he doesn’t, as some have predicted, gazump David Lammy at the Foreign Office.
Wes Streeting
The energetic Health Secretary will have an important role dealing with the dire state of the NHS. He has been keen to prove himself as a bold reformer, making negative comments about the health service that seemed intended to shock Labour traditionalists. Some see Streeting as a future leadership contender.
The Mysterious Cabinet Secretary
While the Cabinet Secretary, head of the Civil Service, is one of the most powerful people in Whitehall, the role has been practically vacant for the last few years. While Sir Simon Case technically holds the role, he was utterly discredited by his role in Partygate and then again when his foul-mouthed pandemic era WhatsApp messages to Matt Hancock were leaked to the Daily Telegraph. Sir Simon will be out of the door as soon as Sir Keir and Sue Gray can find someone to replace him. The smart money is on Olly Robbins, the consultant and former civil servant who managed Brexit negotiations for Theresa May.
The Bright Young Things
Torsten Bell, Miatta Fahnbulleh, Yuan Yang, Josh Simons, et al... The parliamentary Labour party hasn’t been awash with talent in recent years, but it is about to get hundreds of new MPs. Many are young talents who have been parachuted into safe seats by party HQ. They include Torsten Bell, former chair of the deeply influential centre-left think tank Resolution who has just penned a blueprint for “rebuilding Britain” after 14 years of Conservative government. Then there is Miatta Fahnbulleh, a big economic brain who has succeeded Harriet Harman as MP in Peckham. Yuan Yang, a Financial Times journalist and China expert, has just published her first history book as she enters the Commons. And Josh Simons, 30, spent the last few years running the Labour Together think tank, which has been thinking about how the party might win power and address Britain’s problems. These names and many others will become more prominent in the coming years.
The best of the rest...
Dale Vince
The “hippie multimillionaire” who founded Ecotricity was until last year funding the zealots of Just Stop Oil. Then he switched allegiance to Labour in a shrewd U-turn that has given him influence over the party’s energy policy. Vince spent the election campaign trying to convince fellow climate activists not to vote Green, but back Labour instead. He will be watching the party’s deeds closely to see if they match up to its words before the election.
Paul Nowak
General secretary of the Trades Union Congress. Despite the “modernisation” image, Labour is still deeply embedded with trade unions and made many promises to them over the past few years, including putting union reps on the boards of banks and Quangos. The unions also remain one of the biggest sources of donations for the Labour party. This was all glossed over during the election campaign, but Nowak and other union bosses will be cashing their checks, quite literally, now Labour is in power.
The Two Matts (Matt Faulding and Matt Pound)
This duo don’t just share a name, their backroom politicking was essential in making Sir Keir the master of the once-tumultuous Labour party. Pound pushed through the leadership changes that will stop the Left ever having a shot at the party leadership again, while Faulding stitched up candidate selections across the country to ensure that the next parliamentary Labour party is stacked with Starmer loyalists who will not rock the boat. Both will have influential roles in the government.
Peter Mandelson
The self-styled “Third Man” of the last Labour government, with Blair and Brown, Lord Mandelson has enjoyed some influence over the Labour leadership in opposition. Will this continue in government? Word is that Mandy might be rewarded for his long service with a cushy ambassadorial posting abroad.
Pat McFadden
Labour’s National Campaign Coordinator, McFadden has regularly been on the airwaves this election making the case for a Starmer government. A former assistant to Tony Blair and a veteran political faction fighter, he fought Jeremy Corbyn tooth and nail when he was leader and backed Keir Starmer’s leadership campaign from the start. He has been a key member of the leader’s team in recent years and might well be rewarded for his loyalty with a Cabinet role.
Mikel Arteta
The manager of Arsenal will be determining the prime minister’s Monday morning mood throughout most of the football season, so he better keep the Gunners in good shape. Footy-mad Sir Keir regularly makes Arsenal analogies and predicted a few months back, accurately as it turned out, that Labour had more chance of winning power than his beloved team had of winning the Premier League.
The Sainsbury Family
Long-time Labour backer Baron Sainsbury cut off funding during the Jeremy Corbyn years but started bankrolling Labour again under Sir Keir Starmer. He has given the party £5m in the past few years. Sainsbury’s daughter Francesca Perrin has given £2m. Alongside the unions they are the biggest donors to the Labour party, and money undoubtedly buys influence.
Feargal Sharkey
The Undertones front man has reinvented himself in the last few years as an indefatigable campaigner against sewage dumping by private water companies. He has backed Labour because of their pledges on this issue and will be expecting big things from the new government.
Hugh Grant
Actor Hugh Grant has taken a political turn in recent years campaigning for greater press regulation as recommended by the Leveson Report. The Tories have not implemented Leveson’s proposals but Sir Keir, despite repeated requests from some elements of the press, has refused to rule out press regulation. Grant and other campaigners in this area will be watching closely.
