Labour reshuffles front bench

MAHMOOD AND DEBBONAIRE JOIN STARMER’S TEAM AFTER SUPER THURSDAY ELECTION LOSSES

THE Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, has reshuffled his team after the party’s disappointing showing in local elections held last Thursday (5).

Shabana Mahmood MP has been appointed the party’s campaign coordinator, while Bristol West MP Thangam Debbonaire is now the shadow leader of the House of Commons, succeeding Valerie Vaz.

Mahmood told the BBC: “Keir has appointed his team, as he has the right to do, and it’s the job of all of us to work together to try and find a way to build a winning coalition that can span across the country.”

The Asian MP, who has represented Birmingham Ladywood since 2010 and served as a shadow treasury and home office minister, said the party “needs to have a calm and reflective look”.

“We have lost touch with the people we should be trying to represent,” Mahmood said on the BBC’s Today programme.

Despite having “lost

that emotional connection”, the challenge for the party was to “find a way to rebuild it”, she added.

Talking about her new role, Debbonaire said on Twitter, “I’m really honoured to be trusted with the role of shadow leader of the House. I thank my predecessor Val Vaz for her immediate support and for her hard work and commitment to making the House a better place for all and to holding the govt to account.”

Preet Gill stays shadow international development secretary, while Lisa Nandy remains shadow foreign secretary.

Gill said on Twitter, “As the govt retreats from the world stage we have so much to do to ensure cooperation on global challenges like covid19, rising poverty, inequality and the climate crisis.”

Angela Rayner, who was sacked last Saturday (8) as party chair and campaign coordinator in a move that went down badly among Labour ranks, was appointed policy chief on “the future of work”.

She was also given the title of “shadow first secretary of state”, the equivalent of deputy prime minister in the shadow cabinet.

“The Labour party must be the party that embraces the demand for change across our country,” Starmer said. “I look forward to working with our refreshed and renewed team to take on that challenge, deliver that change and build the ambitious programme that will deliver the next Labour government.”

The party lost control of a number of local authorities and of the parliamentary seat of Hartlepool, a Labour bastion for many decades.

It held on to City Halls in London, Manchester and elsewhere, but those successes could not mask its failings in areas that used to be party strongholds.

Starmer has struggled to bridge divides and unite Labour around a clear agenda to challenge the governing Conservatives, who are enjoying a boost from a successful Covid-19 vaccination programme and from putting money have felt neglected.

Other changes in the reshuffle included the appointment of Rachel Reeves as head of economic policy, replacing Anneliese Dodds, who became party chair and head of the policy review.

Starmer and Rayner were elected as party leader and deputy leader, respectively, last year, following Labour’s crushing defeat in a general election in December 2019, when it was led by Jeremy Corbyn.

While opinion polls suggest the Labour leader has more credibility in the eyes of many voters than Corbyn did, the local election results showed the party was still very far from being in a position to regain power at an election due in 2024.

After a 13-year stint in office under former prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, Labour has lost four consecutive general elections since 2010. (With agencies)

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