Sir Keir Starmer moved quickly to appoint David Lammy deputy prime minister as the PM embarked on a major cabinet reshuffle followingAngela Rayner’s resignation after an investigation into her tax affairs.
Yvette Cooper has been moved from home secretary to take up a new role as foreign secretary, with justice secretary Shabana Mahmood replacing her at the Home Office.
Mr Lammy also becomes justice secretary as well as deputy PM. Lucy Powell, the leader of the House of Commons, and Scottish secretary Ian Murray have been sacked from their roles. In total, a dozen cabinet positions were changed during the reshuffle.
The prime minister’s reshuffle comes after Ms Rayner stepped down after ethics adviser Sir Laurie Magnus found that she had breached the ministerial code over her underpayment of stamp duty on her £800,000 flat in Hove, East Sussex.
She told the prime minister in a letter that “I deeply regret my decision to not seek additional specialist tax advice” and took “full responsibility for this error”.
But former deputy Labour leader Baroness Harman told Sky News she believed there was a way back for Ms Rayner.
She said: “She’s still got in the bank all that commitment from the Labour Party. So, I would say there is a way back for her – and I strongly believe that.”
How did Angela Rayner manage to underpay stamp duty? A legal expert explains
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Andrea Jenkyns belts out own song in bizarre Reform conference entrance
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Scottish Labour leader thanks Murray for ‘service’
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has thanked the outgoing Scotland minister Ian Murray for his “service”.
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Mahmood to deliver ‘tough message’ on immigration, report claims
Home secretary Shabana Mahmood will deliver a “tough message” on immigration as she looks to regain control of the narrative following a summer of unrest, sources have claimed.
The former justice minister took over from Yvette Cooper today after the resignation of deputy prime minister Angela Rayner triggered a major cabinet reshuffle from Sir Keir Starmer.
Sources have told The Telegraph that Ms Mahmood is expected to take a more hardline approach to the small boat crossings than her predecessor.
“She has coped with the prison crisis pretty well without a drastic kind of backlash. Now it’s about getting Shabana in that position to try to claw back some of the ground that Labour has lost on immigration,” said a source.
“She will be able to deliver some tough messages around immigration because of her Pakistani heritage, which Yvette Cooper might have found much harder.”
Reform UK council leader George Finch, 19, says sixth form is a ‘complete joke’
A teenage Reform UK council leader has called sixth form a “complete joke” and said it only helps young people develop a “woke mindset”.
George Finch, the 19-year-old leader of Warwickshire County Council, called for more hands-on courses at the Reform UK party conference in Birmingham.
“The education system is broken. I’m probably one of the closest to being in school (on this panel) and being in sixth forms and universities.
“It’s a joke. It’s a complete joke. Sixth forms you’re meant to develop your learning from GCSEs – you don’t develop anything.
“The only thing you do develop is a woke mindset.
“You’re not allowed to question what’s going on. You’re not allowed to question the way you think. You’re just told to think a certain way.
“So in our politics classes, it was why I always asked – it was very simple – why so accepting? Why are we so accepting of the things that are happening?”
Reform UK’s Zia Yusuf praises Tommy Robinson for grooming gang campaigning
Reform UK’s newly-appointed head of policy has praised Tommy Robinson’s campaigning on grooming gangs, but has repeated that he will not be allowed to join the party.
Zia Yusuf, Reform’s former chairman, told a fringe event at the party’s conference at the NEC in Birmingham that he recognised Mr Robinson’s activism.
Mr Yusuf was announced as the party’s new head of policy by Nigel Farage on the first day of the two-day conference on Friday.
Mr Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who founded the English Defence League (EDL) has previously been jailed for contempt of court after repeating false allegations about a Syrian refugee who successfully sued him for libel.
In 2019, he also served time in prison for putting grooming trials in Huddersfield at risk by breaking reporting restrictions that were in place to ensure the proceedings were fair.
Speaking to Spectator editor and former education secretary Michael Gove at an event on Friday, Mr Yusuf was asked who was worse, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn or Mr Robinson.
Mr Yusuf said Mr Corbyn was worse as he said he would not use the nuclear deterrent, “rendering our entire Trident programme null and void”.
He went on to say: “I would say this too. Tommy Robinson has said things about the rape gangs, and was making those arguments for years, and was disparaged and has been proven to be correct on those matters and deserves some credit for that.”
The answer was applauded by some members of the audience.
He was asked by Mr Gove whether Mr Robinson would be allowed to join Reform, with Mr Yusuf immediately saying “No”.
