Starmer ‘focused on delivery’ after post-Rayner purge

Sir Keir Starmer said his focus was on “delivery” after he carried out a purge of Home Office ministers in a major Government reshuffle following Angela Rayner’s resignation.

The Prime Minister is seeking to draw a line under the damaging fallout from his former deputy’s breach of the ministerial code with a new-look Cabinet as several figures were sacked or moved aside.

Sir Keir made sweeping changes at the Home Office, where Yvette Cooper was replaced by former justice secretary Shabana Mahmood and borders minister Dame Angela Eagle was moved to the farming brief.

He said on Saturday: “The new ministers will drive forward our growth agenda with a relentless focus.

“Phase two of this Government is about delivery and this is a Government that will renew Britain and deliver the change people voted for.”

The shake-up is a sign the Prime Minister is seeking to tighten his grip on immigration, as the number of small boat crossings in the English Channel soared to an estimated 1,000 people over the course of Saturday.

Ms Mahmood is expected to make policy announcements on asylum imminently, with one Government source saying “nothing is off the table” for her as she assumes her new brief.

Former industry minister Sarah Jones will become policing minister, a brief she held in opposition, while Mike Tapp, the Dover MP from Labour’s 2024 intake, and Alex Norris also join the department.

Former policing minister Dame Diana Johnson has moved to a new “super ministry” overseen by new Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden – a sign Government intends to push ahead with some radical welfare reform in its search for economic growth.

Ms Rayner quit as deputy prime minister, housing secretary and deputy Labour leader after an independent ethics investigation found she had failed to pay enough stamp duty on a seaside flat she bought in May.

In a letter published on Friday, Sir Laurie Magnus said he believed she had acted in “good faith”, but that “the responsibility of any taxpayer for reporting their tax returns and settling their liabilities rests ultimately with themselves”.

Ms Rayner admitted she had made a “mistake” and said she “deeply” regretted failing to seek additional specialist tax advice during the purchase in Hove.

Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister Darren Jones earlier denied that the Government was in crisis and insisted Sir Keir now has the “strongest team” in place around the Cabinet table following Ms Rayner’s departure.

He ruled out the prospect of an early election amid opposition claims that the upheaval could open up splits within Labour and collapse the Prime Minister’s authority.

But some Labour backbenchers were highly critical of the changes and expressed concerns about what they meant for the party’s direction of travel.

One told the PA news agency that Ms Rayner had made “an unbalanced Cabinet look slightly more balanced”, but “it was almost entirely skin deep and cosmetic”.

“On literally every major issue she has tucked in behind them. A few leaked memos do not a left-wing policy agenda make,” they said.

“Now even the semblance of that illusion is gone. Maybe for the party overall that’s for the better in the long run.

“As for the consequences: Starmer just signed his own death warrant. He has to be gone before (Christmas) otherwise Wes (Streeting) faces Andy (Burnham).”

Liverpool Riverside Labour MP Kim Johnson said the reshuffle looked like “moving deck chairs on Titanic” and “creating a London elite”.

“The Labour Party is a broad church this is certainly not represented with this reshuffle,” she said.

It is unclear whether Ms Rayner will take severance pay following her resignation, but Mr Jones said it would a “decision personally for her, as opposed to the Prime Minister”.

Labour has changed the system so that any ministers who leave office following a “serious breach” of the code will be denied a payout under rules expected to come into force next month.

From October, it will be for the Prime Minister to decide whether the rule-breaking in question meets that threshold.

Speaking to Times Radio, Mr Jones said: “Just as a matter of fact, in this circumstance, that is a decision personally for Angela Rayner as opposed to for the Prime Minister, which is how that will work when our new rules become live next month.”