The reshuffle, thought to have been deftly managed by Sue Gray, made a shadow cabinet heavy with stalwarts from the Blair-Brown era
I don’t know about other people but I really was hoping for more than a sequel to the Blair years. I mean I get they need experience but the Tories are on the ropes, the Centrists in the party have had 13 years to come up with new ideas…
This is the best summary I could come up with:
When Keir Starmer put the final touches to his shadow cabinet reshuffle over the summer recess, his thoughts were not just on who would help propel Labour into government at the next election, but who could run the country if they are successful.
Senior MPs on the soft-left of the party, however, are concerned that with the demotion of Lisa Nandy to the international development brief and Jonathan Ashworth’s move to a more political role, the Labour left has been sidelined from the big policy beats.
Starmer, with his years running the Crown Prosecution Service, has governance experience in abundance, bolstered by bringing in the former top civil servant Sue Gray as his chief of staff.
Pat McFadden, who has worked for Labour since the 1980s and was Blair’s political secretary, is a key figure, taking on the national campaign coordinator role in which he will lead the party’s election strategy group.
As well as promoting experienced operators, Starmer also had to make sure he got what some Labour MPs have called “the Angie question” right, after the explosive fallout of a previous reshuffle in which he tried to demote her but ended up having to smooth things over by giving her an even bigger role.
With a mandate of her own from party members, she is unsackable, but has made no secret of her desire for Starmer to confirm she would also be his deputy prime minister if he ends up in No 10.
The original article contains 685 words, the summary contains 245 words. Saved 64%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!