Rachel Reeves has been promoted to shadow chancellor as part of Sir Keir’s reshuffle of his ‘refreshed and renewed’ top team, with former incumbent Anneliese Dodds relegated to the party chair.
Birmingham Ladywood MP Shabana Mahmood is stepping in as the campaign’s national coordinator.
Ms Rayner has also been given other responsibilities in the reshuffle, with Labor confirming that she will be the first shadow secretary of state, while also having a ‘future of work’ dossier.
Rayner: ‘Work speaks for the working class’
Speaking to Twitter, Ms Rayner said she would “work tirelessly to reform our party” to “show that the Labor Party speaks for the working class”.
As part of the layoff and hiring, Nick Brown was replaced as Chief Shadow Whip by Alan Campbell, while Thangam Debbonaire was transferred to the post of Shadow Chief of the Commons.
The decision to fire Mr Brown, who had served in government as Gordon Brown’s chief whip before accepting the equivalent shadow post under Jeremy Corbyn, has been criticized by a great Labor.
Former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell tweeted: “The sacking of Nick Brown, one of the most experienced and tactically astute chief whips the party has ever had, is inept in the extreme.
“It sounds like (Lord) Mandelson’s revenge.”
Ms Debbonaire replaces Valérie Vaz, who was ousted from the shadow cabinet as part of the reshuffle, with Lucy Powell taking on the post of shadow housing secretary.
Lisa Nandy, whose shadow role for Foreign Minister Dominic Raab was threatened, remained in position.
In fact, the majority of staff in the most senior positions in the shadow cabinet have remained the same in Sir Keir’s first reshuffle since he was elected as the head in April 2020.
The opposition leader said the election results in Scotland and Wales, as well as the host of mayoral victories in England in the Super Thursday elections, gave the party “optimism and inspiration for the ‘to come up”.
But he said Labor “would need bold ideas and a constant focus on the priorities of the British people” to regain power.
“The challenge for us now is to build on these successes and learn from the places we have lost,” said Sir Keir.
“I look forward to working with our renewed and renewed team to meet this challenge, make this change and build the ambitious agenda that will give birth to the next Labor government.
Corbyn calls for return of 2017 policies
Despite the changes at the top, former Labor leader Mr Corbyn, who is currently suspended from the party, warned that “reshuffles or cosmetic adjustments” were unlikely to bring voters back.
In The Independent, Mr Corbyn called for a return to the policies of the 2017 Labor manifesto, which included the nationalization of the Royal Mail and free university tuition.
“It’s new ideas from across our movement – not shuffles or cosmetic tweaks – that will bring hope back,” said MP for Islington North.
Jon Trickett’s MP, the party’s former campaign coordinator and prominent leftist voice, said a leadership challenge should not be ruled out after last week’s exit to the polls.
As part of his reaction to the election result, Sir Keir also hired pollster Deborah Mattinson as chief strategy officer.
Ms Mattinson previously advised former Labor leaders Tony Blair and Mr Brown and wrote a book on why the party lost seats in the so-called ‘red wall’ in the 2019 general election.
It comes after Labor received a beating in parts of the country, losing control of a host of councils and suffering defeat at the hands of Boris Johnson Tories in Hartlepool, the North East constituency electing a Tory MP for the first time since 1959..
The party lost control of Durham Council for the first time in a century, saw its leader ousted by the Greens in Sheffield and also witnessed heavy defeats in Rotherham and Sunderland at the local authority level.
But there have been successes elsewhere, with the dominant party in the mayoral election claiming 11 of 14 contested posts in cities and metropolitan areas across England.
Labor took shocking victories in the west of England, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, while conceding comfortable victories in Greater Manchester and the Liverpool City area, and retaining London and Bristol.
Labor MP and former Coronation Street actor Tracy Brabin was elected West Yorkshire’s first mayor on Sunday.
However, the result sets up another potentially difficult by-election in Westminster for the party following the loss of Hartlepool, as Labor faces another difficult test to hang on to the constituency of Batley and Spen of Mme Brabin in her former post-industrial heart.
The full list of the Labor shadow cabinet reshuffle:
– Rachel Reeves replaced Anneliese Dodds as Shadow Chancellor.
– Anneliese Dodds replaced Angela Rayner as party chair.
– Alan Campbell replaced Nick Brown as Chief Shadow Whip.
– Lucy Powell has replaced Thangam Debbonaire as Shadow Housing Secretary.
– Thangam Debbonaire replaced Valérie Vaz as ghost leader of the House of Commons.
– Wes Streeting’s role as shadow minister for schools has been replaced by secretary for child poverty.
– Angela Rayner, who is Deputy Leader of the Labor Party, has become Shadow First Secretary, Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (taking on the role of Rachel Reeves) and Shadow Secretary for the Future of Work.
The following shadow ministers have retained their positions:
– Lisa Nandy – shadow foreign secretary
– Nick Thomas-Symonds – secretary at the House of Shadows
– David Lammy – Shadow Justice Secretary
– John Healey – Shadow Defense Secretary
– Jonathan Ashworth – shadow secretary for health and social services
– Ed Miliband – secretary of commercial, energy and industrial strategy behind the scenes
– Emily Thornberry – Shadow International Trade Secretary
– Jonathan Reynolds – shadow work and pensions secretary
– Kate Green – shadow education secretary
– Jo Stevens – Secretary of Digital, Culture, Media and Shadow Sports
– Bridget Phillipson – Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury
– Luke Pollard – Shadow Secretary of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
– Steve Reed – Shadow Communities and Local Government Secretary
– Jim McMahon – Shadow Transportation Secretary
– Preet Kaur Gill – Shadow International Development Secretary
– Louise Haigh – Shadow Secretary for Northern Ireland
– Ian Murray – Shadow Secretary of Scotland
– Nia Griffith – Shadow Secretary of Wales
– Marsha de Cordova – shadow secretary for women and equality
– Lord Falconer – Shadow Attorney General
– Baroness Angela Smith – Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
– Lord McAvoy – Chief Lords Opposition Whip
– Rosena Allin-Khan – Shadow Minister of Mental Health
– Cat Smith – Shadow Minister for Youth and Democracy
– Andy McDonald – Secretary of Employment Rights and Protections behind the scenes
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Source: www.bedfordtoday.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-05-10 04:44:45
