LONDON — U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer shook up his Cabinet Friday after his top deputy stepped down over a tax error on a home purchase, leaving a big hole in the center-left Labour government.
Starmer carried out a major reshuffle, a forced government reboot after a rocky 14 months in office that have seen his popularity plunge. Foreign Secretary David Lammy was moved to replace Angela Rayner as deputy prime minister, and also took the justice portfolio. Yvette Cooper moved from the Home Office to become foreign secretary while the justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, became home secretary.
Treasury chief Rachel Reeves was kept in post, meaning that the three major offices of state below the prime minister will be occupied by women for the first time in history.
Rayner breached ministers’ ethical standards
The changes came after Rayner handed in her resignation to Starmer because an independent inquiry concluded that she hadn’t met the ethical standards required of government ministers over her recent purchase of an apartment in Hove, on England’s south coast. The report concluded that she should have sought more specific advice, even though she acted in good faith.
“I take full responsibility for this error,” Rayner said in her resignation letter to Starmer. “I would like to take this opportunity to repeat that it was never my intention to do anything other than pay the right amount.”
In response, Starmer expressed regret but said Rayner had made the right decision.
correspondent Charles de Ledesma reports senior British lawmaker Angela Rayner has resigned over failing to pay enough tax on a south England home.
“I have nothing but admiration for you and huge respect for your achievements in politics,” Starmer wrote. The handwritten letter signed off “with very best wishes and with real sadness.”
Rayner is a hugely popular member of the Labour Party and was widely tipped to be a potential successor to Starmer. In addition to resigning as deputy prime minister and housing secretary, Rayner quit as deputy leader of the party, meaning that members will have to select someone new.
Multiple moves further down the chain
Steve Reed was moved from rural affairs to the housing role.
The changes also saw an enhanced role for Darren Jones, the recently appointed chief secretary to the prime minister — charged with getting a grip on government communications — and a return to government as Scotland Secretary for Douglas Alexander, a veteran of the Tony Blair government two decades ago.
Starmer will be hoping that the bold changes allow him to seize back the political agenda following days of speculation surrounding Rayner’s future, and months of turmoil for his administration.
His government has seen its support fall sharply since its landslide victory in last year’s election, following a string of missteps over welfare reform and mounting public concern about immigration.
Rayner will remain a U.K. lawmaker on the back benches. She referred herself to the independent adviser on ministerial standards, Laurie Magnus, on Wednesday, who delivered his report to Starmer on Friday.
Though Magnus concluded that Rayner had “acted with integrity and with a dedicated and exemplary commitment to public service,“ he said that “with deep regret” she had breached the ministers’ code of conduct.
