A senior minister has categorically ruled out an early election following Angela Rayner's resignation and the subsequent Government reshuffle. Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister Darren Jones said Sir Keir Starmer (Labour) now has the "strongest team" in place after his former deputy quit for breaching the ministerial code.
Jones dismissed opposition claims that the upheaval could expose splits within Labour or collapse the Prime Minister's authority. A wider junior ministerial reshuffle is taking place on Saturday as Sir Keir seeks to draw a line under the fallout from Rayner's departure.
Government denies instability
Speaking to broadcasters on Saturday, Jones rejected suggestions that the Cabinet rejig could delay the Prime Minister's self-described "phase two" of Government. "It's not instability insofar as the outcomes that we're delivering are the same," the newly appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster told BBC Breakfast.
Jones said the Prime Minister had decided it was "the decisive thing to do, to bring (the reshuffle) forward and to get it done on Friday, then to be able to move forward with the strongest team that we have around the Cabinet now leading on delivering the public's priorities." He defended Yvette Cooper's move from Home Secretary to Foreign Secretary, saying she would be "brilliant" in her new role and rejecting suggestions she had failed to get a grip on immigration.
Rayner's tax affairs trigger exodus
Angela Rayner quit as deputy prime minister, housing secretary and deputy Labour leader after an independent ethics investigation found she had failed to pay enough stamp duty on a seaside flat she bought this year. In a letter published on Friday, Sir Laurie Magnus said he believed she had acted in "good faith", but that "the responsibility of any taxpayer for reporting their tax returns and settling their liabilities rests ultimately with themselves".
The ethics watchdog said Rayner's failure to settle her full stamp duty liability, combined with the fact this was only established following media scrutiny, led him to consider the ministerial code had been breached. Her sudden departure prompted the first major reshuffle of Sir Keir's premiership, in which he sacked two ministers, promoted two and moved 10 into different roles.
Major Cabinet changes
Former foreign secretary David Lammy has been made Deputy Prime Minister and also takes over as Justice Secretary from Shabana Mahmood, who has become Home Secretary. Cooper has been moved to Foreign Secretary in the extensive Cabinet reorganisation.
Sir Keir now faces the prospect of a party conference overshadowed by manoeuvring for the deputy leadership role vacated by Rayner, who was popular among grassroots and seen as a bridge between Number 10 and the wider party. Jones directly countered Reform UK leader Nigel Farage's prediction that "splits" would open up following the scandal, saying: "The Labour Party is not going to split and there won't be an early election."
Sources used: "PA Media" Note: This article has been edited with the help of Artificial Intelligence.
