How Keir Starmer’s latest reshuffle unfolded – and what his key picks tell us

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Angela Rayner was delivering her big speech on Tory sleaze and cleaning up politics when Keir Starmer began his shadow cabinet reshuffle. The big shake-up got off to a wobbly start as a result, with the morning dominated by a briefing war that saw a friend of Rayner say: “Trying to sack Angela and make her the scapegoat for Hartlepool was stupid. But doing a reshuffle when she’s literally on her feet giving a speech attacking the Tories for being corrupt is just plain offensive.” Starmer had warned her of an imminent reshuffle shortly before she took to the lectern, but the deputy leader still felt blindsided. It seems everyone (well, apart from the leaker) was taken by surprise when much of the reshuffle plan was revealed in The Times, which explained the odd timing. While that may be a reasonable explanation, it’s fair to say tensions between the two teams haven’t been resolved.

The first bit of news from the reshuffle was not a sacking but a resignation: Cat Smith, who has always been publicly loyal to Starmer, quit when offered to stay in her post. This came as another surprise to the leader’s office. She expressed concerns over both Jeremy Corbyn’s continued suspension from the parliamentary party and the leadership’s lack of enthusiasm for electoral reform. With Andy McDonald and Marsha de Cordova also gone, the Labour left is out. The soft left is also weaker. Rayner remains in the shadow cabinet thanks to her elected role, plus she has made herself immovable from her other posts for the time being. There are only a few others still remaining in the top team who could be considered soft left, including Ed Miliband who has had business taken away from his brief.

The most eye-catching move is Yvette Cooper replacing Nick Thomas-Symonds as Shadow Home Secretary. He was accused of failing to cut through, whereas she gets the thumbs up from the Westminster lobby and is guaranteed more media coverage. I’m told the gap in the afternoon when the reshuffle came to a halt was not because someone turned down a job offer but because Cooper wanted to discuss how her role would be shaped and who would lead on what. Her appointment was clearly key to Starmer’s plan. There are concerns: from the left, that she will try to out-Tory the Tories, particularly on immigration; from others, that she is a return to the Miliband era, when she was in the same post, and this was an era that failed. But she is always tipped as a future leader and Starmer’s pick shows he is not scared of being overshadowed by big hitters.

Elsewhere, Lisa Nandy has been technically demoted from Shadow Foreign Secretary to Shadow Levelling Up Secretary, though really this is a promotion because she is so well-suited to the role. It wi–ll see “Nandy unleashed”, as a source close to her put it. Bridget Phillipson and Wes Streeting, both fairly young, from the Labour right and considered rising stars, have been promoted, to education and health respectively. Along with David Lammy, they show the priority here was bringing forward those thought to be Labour’s most effective communicators, which is all the more important as the next general election approaches. Overall, the leadership is happy with the gender balance (16 women and 14 men), the size (down from 33 to 29) and the geographical positioning (being more tilted towards the North) of the new shadow cabinet.

For more detail, check out our liveblog that ran over the course of the nine-hour exercise and finally the full run-down of Starmer’s new and confirmed shadow cabinet.

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