Labour reshuffle: Anneliese Dodds out in Starmer's post-election reshuffle
- Published
Anneliese Dodds will be replaced by her Labour colleague Rachel Reeves
Sir Keir Starmer has sacked his shadow chancellor in a shake-up of his team after poor election results in England.
Anneliese Dodds will now become the Labour Party's chair - replacing deputy leader Angela Rayner, whom Sir Keir fired from the role on Saturday.
Ms Rayner will instead replace Rachel Reeves in shadowing Michael Gove at the Cabinet Office, as Ms Reeves is promoted to the shadow chancellor role.
The Labour leader chaired a meeting of the shadow cabinet on Monday.
Sources said Sir Keir told them there was no escaping the scale of the defeats which said "something profound about the size of the journey we have to go".
He was said to have told the meeting: "To be clear, I take responsibility. Nobody else. I lead the Labour Party and it is entirely on me."
Sir Keir said that his deputy, Ms Rayner, had "a big, new role, taking the fight to the Tories".
She later tweeted that she was "looking forward to rolling my sleeves up and getting to work" in order to "reconnect with the voters that have lost faith in the Labour Party, especially in our traditional heartlands".
But the reshuffle, announced late on Sunday following hours of wrangling behind closed doors, is already facing criticism from figures within the party.
The moves came after Labour lost control of eight councils overall in English local elections, and suffered an historic defeat to the Conservatives at a by-election in Hartlepool.
The party fared better in Wales, where it won half the seats in Welsh Parliament elections, as well as in several mayoral races in England.
Labour also took the West of England and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough mayoral posts off the Tories, and prevailed in the first race for the new West Yorkshire mayor.
Labour MP and former actress Tracy Brabin - the first woman to become a metro mayor - has stepped down from her role in Westminster to take up the new post.
But this means the party will soon face another by-election in her seat of Batley and Spen, which has been held by Labour since 1997.
Labour was also re-elected in Greater Manchester, where its successful mayoral candidate Andy Burnham urged the party to learn the lessons of its victories.
He added that the party was too focused on a "civil war" between figures from different factions, which would prove "absolutely pointless and destructive."
A row broke out on Saturday after Angela Rayner was sacked by Sir Keir Starmer from two roles in the party
Labour MP for Birmingham Ladywood, Shabana Mahmood, has taken on Ms Rayner's other former role as campaign coordinator.
She told BBC Breakfast the party had to "immerse ourselves in the communities that we currently represent - and that we want to represent once again - and to earn their trust".
But Ms Rayner remains deputy leader of the party as it is an elected post voted for by members - and will be given additional duties to focus on the future of work and "levelling up".
Andy Burnham: Labour needs to stop "pointless and destructive" internal civil war
Former shadow home secretary Diane Abbot hit out at the "drawn-out" reshuffle, which she said "hasn't been fantastically successful".
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, she said Ms Rayner's removal from her campaign role was a sign Sir Keir was trying to make her "carry the can for the poor results".
And Labour's Liverpool Riverside MP Kim Johnson called the decision a "despicable act of cowardice" from the Labour leader.
An ally of Ms Rayner said she had come out "significantly more powerful, both in terms of the party and policy", while a Labour insider told the BBC: "Who would want to be national campaign coordinator in name only with no power when you're just made the scapegoat for the failures of Keir's team?"
In response to the change in role, Ms Rayner tweeted: "I will work tirelessly to reform our party and deliver a policy agenda that will enable us to reconnect with the voters that we need to win, especially in our traditional heartlands, and show that the Labour Party speaks for the working class."
She also thanked "friends from all across the Labour Party and our movement" who had contacted her over the weekend, adding: "United we stand, divided we fall."
Sir Keir Starmer's first reshuffle has been a very messy affair.
It began badly with a bust up with his deputy, Angela Rayner, who was being moved from one of her roles - in charge of campaigns.
Her allies said she was being sacked. Sir Keir's team said she was being moved.
They can't both be telling the whole truth. But there was a late night howl of backlash to the notion she was being ousted, putting pressure on the leader to find a way to make her stay.
Other movements in the reshuffle include:
Thangam Debbonaire changing from her housing brief to become the new shadow leader of the House of Commons - replacing Valerie Vaz who has been in the role since 2016
Lucy Powell replaces her as shadow housing secretary
Wes Streeting taking on a newly formed role as the shadow minister tackling child poverty
Alan Campbell will replace Nick Brown as chief whip having served as the deputy chief whip since 2010
Ms Dodds will also become the chair of the Labour Policy Review
Lisa Nandy is expected to remain as shadow foreign secretary, while Jonathan Ashworth will stay in his role as shadow health secretary.
A spokesman for Mr Brown - who was chief whip under five Labour leaders - said the MP thought it was "a reasonable time for Nick to move on", adding he and Sir Keir had "parted on good terms, with mutual respect".
The party confirmed there would be no further appointments announced.