Starmer clears out Home Office in reshuffle

On Friday, former Deputy Prime Minister and housing minister Angela Rayner resigned after an ethics probe into her tax affairs was published. The move prompted Prime Minister Keir Starmer to begin a mass reshuffle of his government, with his new cabinet appointments here. Starmer’s timing made it a rather coincidental coup, with the news overshadowing the first day of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK conference in Birmingham. And if Farage thought day two of his conference would pass uninterrupted, he was mistaken. Today the PM is reshuffling his junior ministers and the first set of appointments have just been published.

The most significant changes are in the Home Office which is experiencing something of a clear out – with immigration minister Dame Angela Eagle and policing minister Rt Hon Diana Johnson moved to DEFRA and DWP respectively. Scottish Labour’s Michael Shanks has been promoted to become a minister in the Department for Business and Trade on top of his current role as minister in the Energy Department. Shanks has had something of a meteoric rise after winning the Rutherglen by-election in 2023 – becoming shadow Scotland minister ahead of the general election before being made energy minister last July. And businessman Jason Stockwood – who lost the mayoral race for Greater Lincolnshire to Reform’s Andrea Jenkyns earlier this year – will be made a life peer and become a minister in both the Department for Business and Trade and the Treasury.

The reshuffle remains ongoing, and there are a number of the 2024 intake hopeful they will get promoted into government. There are expectations that some of the new Starmerites – many of whom have worked in the Morgan McSweeney-founded Labour Together – may get government roles. Former Labour Together director Josh Simons is now Cabinet Office minister, providing maternity cover. As more names get announced, Starmer gets closer to his headcount limit (as there is a maximum number of ministers he can have on the payroll) and the end of the reshuffle.

The full list is here:

• Jason Stockwood is minister for investment jointly in the Department for Business and Trade and the Treasury. He will also be made a peer.
• Dan Jarvis is a Cabinet Office minister, and remains a Home Office minister.
• Baroness Smith of Malvern is skills minister in the Department for Work and Pensions, and remains minister for skills and minister for women and equalities in the Department for Education.
• Lord Vallance is energy minister, and remains science minister.
• Michael Shanks is minister in both the Department for Business and Trade and Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.
• Alison McGovern is housing minister.
• Dame Angela Eagle is rural affairs minister.
• Rt Hon Dame Diana Johnson is work and pensions minister.
• Sarah Jones is Home Office minister.
• Anna Turley is minister without portfolio in the Cabinet Office, and will attend Cabinet.
• Alex Norris is Home Office minister.
• Sir Chris Bryant is business and trade minister.
• Luke Pollard is defence minister.
• Georgia Gould is education minister.
• Rt Hon Ellie Reeves is Solicitor General.
• Lucy Rigby is economic secretary to the treasury.
• Ian Murray is minister in both the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
• Chris Ward is Cabinet Office minister.
• Seema Malhotra is foreign office minister.
• Mike Tapp is Home Office minister.
• Louise Jones is defence minister.
• Baroness Levitt KC is justice minister.
• Miatta Fahnbulleh is housing minister.
• Samantha Dixon is housing minister.
• Dr Zubir Ahmed is health minister.
• Chris Elmore is foreign office minister.
• Satvir Kaur is Cabinet Office minister.
• Josh Simons is Cabinet Office minister.
• Josh McAlister OBE is education minister.
• Olivia Bailey is education minister.
• Blair McDougall is business and trade minister.
• Kate Dearden is business and trade minister.
• Kanishka Narayan is science minister.
• Anna McMorrin is Wales minister.
• Matthew Patrick is Northern Ireland minister.
• Katie White is energy minister.

Baroness Gustafsson CBE, Jim McMahon MP, Daniel Zeichner, Maria Eagle, Catherine McKinnell, Abena Oppong-Asare, Catherine West, Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede, Lord Khan of Burnley, Janet Daby, Baroness Jones of Whitchurch, Justin Madders, Gareth Thomas, Feryal Clark, Fleur Anderson and Dame Mia Griffith have left the government.

More to follow…