Ellie Reeves is new party chair as Dodds takes Nandy’s development brief

Ellie Reeves has been appointed the new chair of the Labour party and a Cabinet Office miinster, while former chair Anneliese Dodds looks set to become a minister for international development.

Reeves was previously deputy national campaign co-ordinator for Labour, deputising for Pat McFadden in overseeing the party’s election campaigning. She will continue to work as a minister without portfolio with McFadden in the Cabinet Office, which he now leads as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

Dodds was once Starmer’s first Shadow Chancellor, before being moved to the Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities brief, as well as the party chair and National Policy Forum chair roles she served in up until the election.

She has not been officially unveiled as a minister of state for development, but footage of the first cabinet meeting showed her sat behind a name card with the title on.

The development brief was not a cabinet role under the Tories following the merger of the development department into the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. But when Nandy was demoted from her levelling up role last year to hand Rayner a departmental shadow brief, the shadow international development minister role was upgraded to be a shadow cabinet post – allowing Nandy to remain in the shadow cabinet.

Now Nandy has been moved to become cabinet member for culture, media and sport, however, as the shadow roleholder Thangam Debbonaire lost her seat, leaving the development post vacant for Dodds to fill.

Reeves and Dodds both said it was an “honour to serve”, and Dodds said Reeves would do a “brilliant job”.

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