Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of forming a ‘Blairite’ shadow cabinet as the country gears up for another next general election.
The Labour leader said his shadow cabinet reshuffle meant the party has the “strongest possible players on the pitch” ahead of an election some speculate could be held as early as May next year.
Starmer made significant changes to his top team as Parliament returned from the summer recess, promoting a number of figures with prior experience of government under former prime minister Tony Blair.
It’s been described as a ruthless reshuffle by some commentators, with a purging of the left helping to make way for the ‘Blairites’ as the party prepares to transition from one its worst ever defeats to a majority government.
But the reshuffle was criticised for ‘lacking ideas’, with the promotion of five former Blair-era special advisers, including Jon Ashworth and Liz Kendall, signalling Starmer’s planned alignment with the party that won three consecutive elections from 1997.
Veteran MP Pat McFadden, who served in a number of roles under Blair and Brown was appointed shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, while Hillary Benn returns as shadow secretary of state for Northern Ireland.
Meanwhile, the promotion of Angela Rayner to shadow deputy prime minister along with a major department marks a major throwback to the days of John Prescott.
The decision to move Rayner, who had previously been shadowing the Cabinet Office, led to Lisa Nandy’s demotion from her role as levelling-up secretary and transfer to cover the international development brief.
The wigan MP, who rivalled Sir Keir for the leadership in 2020, is now deputy to shadow foreign secretary David Lammy.
Kendall, considered to be to the right of the party, was appointed shadow secretary of state for work and pensions, a promotion from her previous role as shadow minister for social care.
But she denied the reshuffle made the shadow cabinet more “Blairite”, telling BBC Radio 4’s PM programme: “No it isn’t.
“We don’t want to go back to 2010, let alone 1997 – this is a team focussed on the future.”
Starmer has faced increasing pressure to make changes to the shadow cabinet in a bid to boost Labour’s position in the polls which, according to polling by Opinium, is 14 points clear of the Tories.
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