Starmer kicks off major reshuffle after Angela Rayner leaves UK Government
Sir Keir Starmer has begun a major reshuffle of his senior team, after Angela Rayner resigned from the Government for breaching the ministerial code when she did not pay enough stamp duty on a seaside home.
David Lammy will replace Ms Rayner as the Deputy Prime Minister according to reports, and also becomes the Justice Secretary, moving from his role as Britain’s top diplomat, the Foreign Secretary.
Shabana Mahmood, formerly the justice secretary, is the new Home Secretary, the PA news agency understands.
Reports
Meanwhile, Yvette Cooper has moved from her brief at the Home Office to take over Mr Lammy’s former job as Foreign Secretary, several media reports have suggested.
Pat McFadden, a senior minister within the Cabinet Office, is taking over a new “super ministry” comprised of the Department for Work and Pensions and the skills remit of the Department for Education, according to sources.
Lucy Powell and Ian Murray have been sacked as leader of the House of Commons and Scotland secretary respectively.
Ms Rayner resigned as deputy PM, housing secretary and deputy Labour leader after Sir Keir’s ethics adviser said she failed to “heed the caution” contained within legal advice she received when buying an £800,000 property in Hove.
The outgoing deputy prime minister admitted she had underpaid stamp duty on the flat, and referred herself to Sir Laurie Magnus, the independent ethics adviser.
In a letter published on Friday, Sir Laurie said he believed Ms Rayner had acted in “good faith”, but that “the responsibility of any taxpayer for reporting their tax returns and settling their liabilities rests ultimately with themselves”.
Advice
Sir Laurie added: “She believed that she relied on the legal advice she had received, but unfortunately did not heed the caution contained within it, which acknowledged that it did not constitute expert tax advice and which suggested that expert advice be sought.”
The ethics watchdog said that Ms Rayner’s failure to settle her full stamp duty liability, along with the fact that this was only established following media scrutiny, led him to consider the ministerial code had been breached.
Ms Rayner told the Prime Minister in a letter on Friday that “I deeply regret my decision to not seek additional specialist tax advice” and said she took “full responsibility for this error”.
In his response, Sir Keir said Ms Rayner would “remain a major figure in our party” and “continue to fight for the causes you care so passionately about”.
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So this is the Labour Government leaning further to the right in its senior appointments. That’s unfortunate.
This is probably the most niche view of events. But Angela Rayner was supposed to decide by Monday whether to approve the new Chinese ‘super’ embassy in London. Imagine being the poor civil servant who has to explain all this to Xi Jinping and why there is a delay in the decision…
Another day another relaunch, after the pledges broken missions failed etc. what will be next. No doubt another set of three word slogans will be invented.