Newcastle MP Nick Brown sacked as chief whip in Keir Starmer’s job shake up UK News

Newcastle East MP Nick Brown was sacked from his role as chief whip as Labor leader Keir Starmer stabbed his senior team following disastrous election results.

The 70-year-old, a veteran of the Blair and Brown governments, has been ousted and replaced by Sir Alan Campbell.

A spokesperson for Mr Brown insisted he was on good terms, saying: “Nick thinks it’s a reasonable time for Nick to move on. He and Keir have parted ways on good terms. , in mutual respect.

“He wished Keir and the new Chief Whip every success.”

Anneliese Dodds is another victim after being sacked as Shadow Chancellor after only a year in the role.

Shadow Cabinet Minister Rachel Reeves is expected to fill the vacancy, The Mirror reports.

Ms Dodds, who had to deal with months of grumbling over her performance, was due to be demoted to become party chair.

But party leader Mr Starmer was forced to scale back his shadow cabinet reshuffle plan as some forward MPs staged a revolt, faced with taking lesser posts or resigning instead of doing so. in the face of humiliation.

A day of drama and confusion unfolded after he sacked Vice President Angela Rayner from the crucial role of party chairperson late on Saturday – only for another forward bench to assert the next day morning that she had actually been promoted.

A shadow cabinet source said Ms Rayner was “in a real position of strength now” as negotiations over her role dragged on.

She was expected to get Ms Reeves’ post as shadow cabinet minister, with an expanded role focused on the future of work.

Lisa Nandy was to stay in the role of shadow secretary and Jonathan Ashworth was to stay healthy.

Shadow education secretary Kate Green was among those whose positions would be threatened. But the reshuffle was less ambitious than initially expected.

Mr Starmer apparently sacked Vice President Angela Rayner from her role as party chair on Saturday night, only for his Shadow Scottish secretary Ian Murray to say this morning that she had, in fact, been promoted.

Mr Starmer and his closest advisers have started to expect a brutal round of layoffs after Labor’s disastrous results in Thursday’s election. But by mid-afternoon, they were floundering as the shaking stopped.

When asked if they knew what was going on, a shadow cabinet minister replied, “Not a scooby.”

Another source from the shadow cabinet said it was the “mess to be cleared up” from the Office of the Leader of the Opposition.

Another source said “only a few name tags” would be “moved around the Shadow Cabinet table.” The next meeting is scheduled for Monday.

They also said Ms Rayner was “in a real position of strength now” as negotiations over her role dragged on.

Meanwhile, bookies have slashed the odds of Andy Burnham taking over as Labor leader as the party emerges from its latest collapse of the ballot box.

Ladbrokes installed Mr Burnham, the mayor of the Greater Manchester Underground, as a 6/1 favorite to succeed Mr Starmer, who had odds of 4/1 to be ousted before the end of the year.

Mr Burnham, a two-time executive hopeful who was dubbed ‘the King of the North’ last fall after his confrontation with No.10 over coronavirus funding, has fueled speculation of an offer, in saying, ‘In the distant future, if the party was to feel they needed me, well, I’m here and they should contact me. “

But Mr Burnham, who served as health secretary in Gordon Brown’s government, said: ‘I was elected mayor of Greater Manchester, that’s where I am focusing.

“I left Westminster politics, I’m not an MP – you have to be an MP to represent the leader of the Labor Party and I’m not aware the rules have changed. So, no, I’m focusing here.”

Labor lost the Hartlepool by-elections and West Midlands and Tees Valley mayoral elections, with Boris Johnson claiming a spectacular ‘treble’.

The victories of Labor in the mayoral elections of London, Greater Manchester and the West of England, as well as the Welsh Senedd, did not hide the grim picture.