Sir Keir Starmer has orchestrated a ministerial clearout of the Home Office after a failure to tackle illegal migration and rows over grooming gangs and policing badly damaged Labour in the polls.
With panic rising over Reform’s 10-point lead in the polls and Nigel Farage continuing to capitalise on a failure to stop the small boats amid protests outside migrant hotels, Sir Keir appears to have lost patience with the highly vaunted team he installed in July last year.
Former home secretary Yvette Cooper, who just weeks ago was laying out her vision for the future of the Home Office, has been appointed foreign secretary while several of her key ministers have been moved to different parts of government.
Policing minister Dame Diana Johnson has been sent to work and pensions, while Dame Angela Eagle is to be farming minister. Security minister Dan Jarvis is relocated to the Cabinet Office, but will continue to liaise with the Home Office.
And in come Nottingham North MP Alex Norris and Croydon West MP Sarah Jones, both lower-profile politicians than the team before but two who have earned a reputation for graft as ministers.
While Downing Street has not commented, it appears that concerns over the way the department was performing have played a role in the clearout.
Record numbers of small boats, hitting 50,000 over the summer, migrant hotels, rows over policing and the handling of the grooming gang scandal have all badly hurt Labour in the polls.
The moves came on the day that Reform put Lucy Connolly on the conference stage, welcoming her as “a political prisoner” despite her tweet during the riots inspired by the Southport murders suggesting that migrant hotels should be burnt down.
The former child carer and wife of a Tory councillor has been used by the right to attack the policing and judicial systems in the UK with Labour struggling to push back on “two-tier Keir” accusations.
Sir Keir will now be hoping that a new team headed by his highly respected former justice secretary Shabana Mahmood will take a much more robust attitude to dealing with the issues besetting his government.
He also appeared to look for a shake-up in his campaigning team with Anna Turley brought in as the new party chair and Ellie Reeves, chancellor Rachel Reeves’s sister, demoted to solicitor general.
Meanwhile, the Department for Business and Trade has also been cleared out following Jonathan Reynolds’s demotion to chief whip and former trade minister Douglas Alexander being named the new Scottish secretary.
In Mr Alexander’s place comes Jason Stockwood, the former boss of dating app match.com and ex-chair of Grimbsy Town FC.
But concerns remain about the changes at the top, which have seen almost no new faces while many of those responsible for the poor start to the new Labour government have just been moved to new jobs.
Former Labour MP Rosie Duffield – now an independent MP – told Times Radio Sir Keir’s reshuffle was like “shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic”.
Meanwhile, Labour MP Ian Lavery warned that the party “needs a change in direction or face the consequences”, adding: “It’s very obvious that the shuffling has been well prepared – oven ready, one might say. It’s undoubtedly a move to the right of the party with no real surprises.
“Many believe that it paves the way for a more radical move to the right on issues such as immigration and welfare – time will tell. Angela will be a huge miss – an excellent politician who understands the true meaning of the Labour Party.
“The party needs a change in direction or face the consequences. We must grasp this opportunity before it’s all too late.”
Rachael Maskell, who was suspended from the parliamentary Labour Party before the summer over the welfare rebellion, added: “Little changes with Labour’s reshuffle as there is little change. What is needed is a change in culture, to be the great inclusive and progressive party we were created to be. I hope that Labour will rapidly find its confidence to address the challenges of our time and set a new direction for our nation.”
Apart from former deputy prime minister Ms Rayner being forced to leave, the only significant departure at the top was Ian Murray as Scottish secretary to make room for Mr Alexander.
The move has been questioned by senior figures in the party ahead of crucial Scottish Parliament elections next year where Labour could be pushed into third place behind the SNP and Reform.
Ross Thomson, a former Tory MP who defected to Reform, told The Independent: “I am surprised Ian Murray has gone. It will make our job easier.”
It is also understood that concerns have been raised by a range of senior figures in Scottish Labour, while a senior SNP figure said: “We are doing cartwheels.”
Failure in Scotland and Wales next year could see an attempt to remove Sir Keir as prime minister by his MPs.
There is anger over how he has handled the sackings, including that of farming minister Daniel Zeichner, who had to deal with the fury over changes to inheritance tax.
One minister who was moved on told The Independent: “It was clear the PM did not want to talk, he was hurrying the conversation on. He gave me no reason why I had to leave my job.”
There are serious concerns that with Ms Rayner’s departure there is no voice on the left in the cabinet.
One Labour MP said: “Rayner wasn’t just a strong voice on the left – rather she 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.”
However, an ally of Ms Rayner told The Independent: “Angela will not be quiet on the back benches. She will speak out and has a lot to say.”
