The winners and losers from the Labour reshuffle

Who is the big winner so far from Keir Starmer’s reshuffle? The MP with the most to complain about is Lisa Nandy. She has been demoted from Levelling Up secretary to shadow cabinet minister for international development. Given she held the Foreign Office brief in Starmer’s first shadow cabinet, it’s quite a fall from grace. While Nandy does still get to attend shadow cabinet, a cabinet role if Labour forms a government at the next election could elude her. Labour sources suggest no decision has been made on whether DfID would be re-established as a separate department in such a scenario. 

It follows that it could be argued that Rayner is the victor – taking the brief from Nandy. Rayner is Shadow Deputy Prime Minister and Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. This means on top of the meaty brief she has gone from being deputy leader – a role voted for by the party membership – to shadow deputy prime minister. It’s confirmation from Starmer that she would take on that role if they win power. It’s also something Rayner has been publicly angling for, joking last October that ‘I’ll definitely be deputy prime minister, otherwise Keir’s got trouble’ as well as pitching herself as ‘John Prescott in a skirt’, in a nod to the role Prescott performed for Tony Blair. 

While it remains to be seen what influence Rayner has in that role – the most influential member of the shadow cabinet remains Rachel Reeves – this reshuffle is certainly going more smoothly than when Starmer tried to move Rayner in 2021. Back then, the outspoken frontbencher emerged stronger despite efforts by the Leader’s Office to do the opposite. She was stripped of her role as party chair but then played hard ball over what else she would accept. This delayed the reshuffle until she eventually emerged with the longest title of any member of the shadow cabinet: shadow minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Shadow Secretary of State for the Future of Work and Deputy Leader.

The other big theme of the reshuffle is the Blairites in ascendancy. There are now five Blair-era special advisers in the shadow cabinet. What’s more, one of the other winners from today’s shake-up is Pat McFadden, who moves from the role of shadow chief secretary to the Treasury to shadow Duchy of Lancaster and National Campaign Co-ordinator. McFadden is an unashamed Blairite who also sees a virtue in the fact he was the first figure to quit under Jeremy Corbyn (as I wrote about here). Another figure on the right to return is Liz Kendall, who takes on the work and pensions brief.