Rumours of a reshuffle intensify, with report one may happen as soon as July

The rumour mill about a potential reshuffle of Labour’s frontbench team continues to whirr. According to a Times report on Wednesday evening, Keir Starmer is considering moving Angela Rayner and Lisa Nandy potentially as soon as next month, with the deputy Labour leader tipped to take over Nandy’s role of Shadow Levelling Up Secretary. The Times reports that Nandy would be retained in the shadow cabinet but that it is unclear what position she would be given. Timing-wise, the paper hears that aides are pushing the Labour leader to “stamp his authority on his top team” with a reshuffle following the three by-elections on July 20th and the long weekend meeting of Labour’s national policy forum, which begins the following day. Suffice to say, any such move would be made easier for Starmer by a strong showing in those by-elections, and the party has shown its ambition in both Uxbridge and South Ruislip and Selby and Ainsty with visits by its big hitters. Labour were not immediately available for comment.

Nandy was already having a busy week before the Times story dropped. Labour is today urging the government to implement some of the measures set out in the private renters’ charter the opposition announced in 2022 – to protect renters amid the growing mortgage crisis. Nandy declared Labour will “never treat renters as second-class citizens” and accused the government of leaving them “in limbo waiting for basic reforms”. The steps being demanded by the party include banning no-fault evictions and lengthening notice periods in cases of repossession. But Nandy has faced criticism of her own following her speech to the Housing 2023 conference on Wednesday, during which she said Labour backs tenants’ right to buy social housing but does not support rent controls or untargeted mortgage relief – leading to accusations of a U-turn on rent controls, which were seized upon by both the SNP and the Greens.

Framing the announcement as a full-blown U-turn is somewhat unfair. Nandy said last September she was “personally very interested and attracted” by the idea of giving metro mayors and local authorities powers to freeze rents over the winter and told a party conference event at the time she had asked her team to look at whether it would be a “workable” proposal. But there are understood to be concerns rent controls while mortgage holders’ costs are soaring risk exacerbating a shortage of rental properties if more landlords sell up, and Nandy argued at the event yesterday: “When housebuilding is falling off a cliff and buy-to-let landlords are leaving the market, rent controls that cut rents for some will almost certainly leave others homeless.” But her comments on rent controls and mortgage relief were met with criticism from Momentum, with a spokesperson accusing the leadership of being “allergic to good, popular policy”. Her endorsement of Right to Buy also drew criticism from some housing commentators.

On LabourList this morning, we have an interview with Northumbria’s police and crime commissioner Kim McGuinness, who is standing to be Labour’s candidate for the newly created North East mayoralty. After an explosive row early in the contest over the decision to leave sitting North of Tyne mayor Jamie Driscoll off the longlist, the contest has been whittled down to two: McGuinness and former MEP Paul Brannen (LabourList will also being offering him an interview). In today’s interview, McGuinness – who is generally considered to be the party leadership’s favoured candidate – discusses what her priorities would be if elected, the future of devolution and key issues being raised by voters.

Elsewhere, the government’s illegal migration bill faced a series of defeats in the Lords on Wednesday, including various amendments put forward by Labour peers. The legislation – which has been described as “desperately cruel” by human rights organisation Liberty – will return to the upper house for further votes on Monday. The government’s immigration policy was dealt another blow this morning, when it lost the latest round of its legal battle over its Rwanda deportation plan. The Court of Appeal reversed the High Court’s decision that Rwanda was a safe third country, with the judge concluding that the removal of asylum seekers to Rwanda would be “unlawful” in current circumstances.