Starmer reshuffles Cabinet after Rayner’s exit

London; Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Friday appointed Foreign Secretary David Lammy as Deputy Prime Minister in a major Cabinet reshuffle following the resignation of Angela Rayner over a tax underpayment row.

Rayner, who also held the Housing Secretary portfolio, stepped down after admitting underpaying tax on a new home she recently bought on the south coast of England.

Lammy, 53, has been promoted to the post of Deputy PM with additional charge as Justice Secretary.

As part of the reshuffle, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper shifts to succeed him as Secretary of State in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and British Pakistani Shabana Mahmood gets elevated to the Home Office from the Ministry of Justice as part of a wide-ranging reset at the top tier of government.

Rayner, 45, a powerful leader within the Labour Party, handed in her resignation after a sped-up independent ethics inquiry concluded that she had breached the Ministerial Code of Conduct by failing to seek out specialist tax advice to ensure she paid the correct stamp duty on the property.

Starmer expressed his regret at losing his senior-most minister after Sir Laurie Magnus, his Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards, informed him that his deputy cannot be considered to have met the “highest possible standards of proper conduct”and therefore was in breach of the Ministerial Code of Conduct.

“You were right to refer yourself to the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Adviser and right to act on his conclusions,” he said, in a rare hand-written letter in response to Rayner’s resignation.agencies