As the PM completed a shake-up of his top team following the resignation of Angela Rayner, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Darren Jones claimed it was better than ever
Keir Starmer’s new-look cabinet is the “strongest team” following a dramatic reshuffle that saw Angela Rayner resign, a senior minister has claimed.
The former Deputy Prime Minister quit the government for saving £40,000 in stamp duty on her home at Hove, East Sussex. Ms Rayner said it was a mistake made in good faith, and Ethics watchdog Sir Laurie Magnus said Angela Rayner had “acted with integrity and with a dedicated and exemplary commitment to public service”.
Now as the PM completed a shake-up of his top team, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Darren Jones claimed it was better than ever. He said: “Because of the former deputy prime minister’s resignation, the Prime Minister 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.”
READ MORE: Nigel Farage brands Mirror reporter ‘disgusting’ after question on stamp duty rowREAD MORE: Keir Starmer reshuffles Cabinet after Angela Rayner quits over tax error – changes in full
Mr Jones also denied there was instability in the Labour Government, explaining it was “quite normal” for administrations to have a reshuffle around this time.
He also slapped down a suggestion from Reform UK leader Nigel Farage that there were Labour “splits”, and his claim there would be an early election.
Saturday saw the PM reshuffle his junior ministers, including a shake-up at the Home Office. Anna Turley joined the Cabinet Office and will attend Cabinet, Sir Chris Bryant joined the Business Department, Ellie Reeves was made Solicitor General, and Alex Norris was made a minister in the Home Department.
Georgia Gould was appointed in Education, Lucy Rigby went to the Treasury, and Luke Pollard was made a minister in Defence. Maria Eagle MP and Catherine McKinnell MP both left the Government.
Dame Angela Eagle was moved from the Home Office to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affair, Dame Diana Johnson the former policing minister, went to the Department for Work and Pensions, and Sarah Jones was appointed as a Home Office minister.
Daniel Zeichner was sacked as farming minister, while former investment minister Poppy Gustaffson and former local government minister Jim McMahon also left the Government.
Elsewhere, Ms Rayner was offered strong support from Julia Davies, a founding member of Patriotic Millionaires UK, a nonpartisan network of British millionaires supporting higher taxes.
She said: “Yes it appears that Angela made a mistake and needs to repay about £40k in under paid stamp duty – but to me this looks like a mistake not intentional avoidance of vast amounts of tax which those who led this witch hunt practice on a daily basis.
“In looking at this the real story is scale. £40k under paid compared to millions avoided through offshore bank accounts and profit switching – complicated structures which mean the likes of Amazon conveniently make their profits in low tax countries and not the UK where they make so many sales at the expense of small to medium sized businesses who don’t have the ability nor the anti-social mindset to cynically minimise their contribution to society.”
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