Who are new Cabinet ministers Douglas Alexander and Emma Reynolds?

Starmer’s first Cabinet reshuffle saw him bring two new faces to his top team following Angela Rayner’s resignation from government.

With many Cabinet members shifting positions to new ministerial briefs, Douglas Alexander and Emma Reynolds, who both returned to Parliament last year after a period away from Westminster, were promoted to Scottish Secretary and Environment Secretary, respectively.

Alexander, Labour and Co-operative MP for Lothian East, was first elected as the MP for Paisley South in Labour’s 1997 landslide election win, serving in several ministerial roles under Blair and Brown – including as Europe Minister, Transport Secretary and International Development Secretary.

He lost his seat in 2015 to 20-year-old Mhairi Black, the SNP candidate, but returned to Parliament at the last general election. Shortly after Labour’s election win last year, Alexander was appointed as a trade minister and later made a minister of state in the Cabinet Office.

His appointment as Scottish Secretary marks his second time holding the office, having served in the role for just over a year before Blair resigned as Prime Minister.

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Emma Reynolds, MP for Wycombe, was first elected as the MP for Wolverhampton North East in 2010, serving as a shadow minister for the Foreign Office and later as a shadow housing minister and shadow communities secretary. However, she resigned her shadow ministerial brief following the election of Jeremy Corbyn as party leader – and supported Owen Smith in the 2016 leadership election.

Reynolds was defeated in the 2019 election by the Conservatives but returned to Westminster at the last general election, defeating former Conservative minister Steve Baker and becoming the first Labour MP for Wycombe since 1950.

Shortly after the election, she was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary for the Treasury and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Pensions. In January, following Tulip Siddiq’s resignation from the government, Reynolds was promoted to the role of Economic Secretary to the Treasury and appointed as City Minister.

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