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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Rebecca Whittaker

Who is in and who is out? Keir Starmer reshuffles junior ministers

Sir Keir Starmer has continued his major reshuffle following Angela Rayner’s resignation as housing secretary and deputy prime minister.

The prime minister is seeking to relaunch his government as it lags behind Reform UK in the polls and struggles to deliver on key promises.

Sir Keir moved Yvette Cooper from the Home Office to the Foreign Office on Friday in a major shake-up of his top team.

But now he is reshuffling other key ministerial posts, including sweeping changes in the Home Office.

Junior ministers and ministers of state have specific areas of responsibility in government departments. This differs from a cabinet minister who is in charge of a whole department and takes part in cabinet meetings.

Here, The Independent looks at who is in and who is out.

• Anna Turley is now the minister of state in the Cabinet Office. The MP for Redcar Anna Turley, who has been a government whip since the last election, replaced solicitor general Ellie Reeves - Rachel Reeves’s sister - as the Labour Party chair.

• Ellie Reeves has become solicitor general, replacing Lucy Rigby, who is moving to the Treasury to become economic secretary.

• Alex Norris MP for Nottingham North and Kimberley is now minister of state in the Home Department.

• Sir Chris Bryant has been stripped of his joint role with the science and culture departments. Now the MP for Rhondda and Ogmore is a minister of state at the Department for Business and Trade.

• Luke Pollard the MP for Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport is now minister of state in the Ministry of Defence.

• Georgia Gould, MP for Queen's Park and Maida Vale, has been moved from a junior role at the Cabinet Office to being minister of state in the Department for Education.

• Lucy Rigby, who has been MP for Northampton North since 2024, is now also economic secretary to the Treasury.

• Dan Jarvis, MP for Barnsley North, has joined the Cabinet Office as a minister, while also remaining security minister in the Home Office.

• Baroness Jacqui Smith has taken up the role of skills minister in the Department for Work and Pensions. The current member of the House of Lords will stay as both the skills and women and equalities minister in the Department for Education.

• Lord Patrick Vallance has become a minister in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. He will remain minister in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

• Michael Shanks, MP for Rutherglen, is now a minister jointly in the Department for Business and Trade and Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

• Alison McGovern, MP for Birkenhead, has been appointed minister of state at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

• Grimsby businessman Jason Stockwood has been appointed to the government as a minister of state in the Department for Business and Trade and the Treasury.

• Maria Eagle MP for Liverpool Garston and Catherine McKinnell MP for Newcastle upon Tyne North have left the government.

• Former investment minister Poppy Gustaffson and former local government minister Jim McMahon have also left the government.

• Daniel Zeichner, MP for Cambridge, was sacked by Sir Keir from his role as farming minister.

• Former Scotland secretary Ian Murray has become a minister jointly in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

• Mike Tapp and Louise Jones, both from the 2024 intake of Labour MPs, have become ministers in the Home Office and Ministry of Defence respectively.

• Baroness Levitt, who was the principal legal adviser to Sir Keir while he served as director of public prosecutions, becomes a justice minister.

• Chris Ward, who has served as the prime minister's principal private secretary, has been made a Cabinet Office minister, and Seema Malhotra has become parliamentary under-secretary of state in the Foreign Office, while remaining minister for equalities.

• Miatta Fahnbulleh and Samantha Dixon have entered the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government as ministers. Dr Zubir Ahmed, another MP from the 2024 intake, has become a health minister.

• Abena Oppong-Asare has left government as a Cabinet Office minister, as have Catherine West as a Foreign Office minister, Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede as a justice minister and Lord Khan of Burnley as faith and communities minister.

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