Sir Keir Starmer came under growing pressure today to carry out a reshuffle within weeks, with Labour MPs split over what post he should give his deputy Angela Rayner.
The Labour leader was being urged to shake up his top team before Labour’s annual rally in Liverpool in early October, and possibly even before MPs return to the Commons at the start of next month.
With speculation rife over Ms Rayner’s future, one senior Labour MP said Sir Keir should “give her a proper job to get her teeth into” rather than her current less high-profile shadow Cabinet Office role. Another said she was in a “strong position” for a “big job” given her popularity among trade unions, the Labour Left and some more centrist MPs, and having her own mandate as Labour’s elected deputy leader.
But a third senior Labour MP argued that she was “not good on detail” and came over as “not serious”. With polls suggesting that Labour is poised to win power next year, he added: “You are talking about being a minister. What would you give her to do? That’s the problem.”
If this view gained traction, it could give Sir Keir a dilemma with echoes of Tony Blair’s decisions about his deputy John Prescott when New Labour got into government after the 1997 general election.
Lord Prescott, now 85, was a very influential figure in Labour and often played a key role defusing the repeated rows between Mr Blair and his chancellor Gordon Brown. But his critics say he was over-promoted in government with a vast Whitehall empire, at a time covering transport, the environment and the regions, and he came under fire for policies such as the failed regional assemblies.
Ms Rayner currently has a wide-ranging brief as shadow first secretary of state, shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and shadow secretary of state for the future of work. Elected to Parliament in 2015 as MP for Ashton-under-Lyne, she is being mooted now as a possible shadow levelling-up secretary. She is seen to the Left of Sir Keir and at times has not shied away from making clear her disagreements with him.
Her partner, Sam Tarry, the Leftwing MP for Ilford South, was sacked as shadow transport minister last July in a frontbench “collective responsibility” row after giving a TV interview on the picket line at Euston during an RMT rail strike. Only two years ago, Ms Rayner was being talked up as a potential successor to Sir Keir, alongside Rachel Reeves, Wes Streeting and Andy Burnham, as his party reforms were compared to Neil Kinnock’s, paving the way for someone else to take it into government.
Ms Rayner has her critics within Labour circles, including over her language such as branding the Tories “scum”. But her direct communications approach is seen as appealing to some voters. Given the level of support for her within the Labour movement, one senior MP predicted a “big job” for her in any reshuffle.
“It partly depends on her as much as on Keir, and what she wants to do,” he added, with Ms Rayner seen to have emerged in a stronger position after resisting a planned move for her in a May 2021 reshuffle. Another senior Labour MP said: “This (a reshuffle) is hugely vital. People need to get on top of their brief before the general election,” with expectations that it will be in the autumn of 2024.
Shadow cabinet ministers who appear vulnerable to being moved include Jim McMahon, shadow for environment, food and rural affairs, with criticism that some of them are “uninspiring”.
Sir Keir is not expected to replace many of his top team, with shadow chancellor Ms Reeves emerging as one of Labour’s strongest performers.
If Ms Rayner was given the levelling-up brief, a role would have to be found for Lisa Nandy, currently in the post. Apparent tensions between Sir Keir and shadow climate and net zero secretary Ed Miliband appeared to have bubbled up recently over Labour’s £28 billion green economy revolution plan, funded by borrowing.
But with global warming rising up the agenda, moving Mr Miliband may seem odd given that he is one of the few shadow Cabinet members to have served in government.
