Leader to wield the axe after shocking election day failure
KEIR Starmer’s first job to reset Labour will be a revamp of his lacklustre shadow Cabinet.
MPs are urging him to recruit a big hitter such as Yvette Cooper – but she will need some persuading to leave her powerful job as chair of the
Commons Home Affairs
Committee.
The Labour leader could tempt her with
Shadow Foreign Secretary, which would mean shifting
Lisa Nandy to a new job.
Or he may want to use
Ms Cooper’s expertise as shadow Home Secretary, to put the boot into Priti
Patel, which means sacking
Nick Thomas-Symonds.
Also headed for the chop are Shadow
Chancellor Anneliese
Dodds, with Shadow
Cabinet Office Minister
Rachel Reeves tipped to replace her. Sir Keir would need to watch his back if he gave those jobs to Ms
Cooper and Ms Reeves.
MPs say the next
Labour leader must be a woman and they are the prime contenders.
Shadow Housing
Secretary Thangam
Debbonaire is also set for the heave-ho but Jonathan Ashworth would stay at Health.
Sir Keir kept his head down yesterday as more bad results tumbled in. When he raises it he has promised a major policy review.
Mr Thomas-Symonds said: “It will reimagine our economy.”
Insiders say he will start by studying Jeremy Corbyn’s 2017 election manifesto, which promised an end to zero-hours contracts as well as taking rail, water and energy into public ownership.
It was only in 2019 when Mr Corbyn added unbelievable promises that it fell apart.