Who's in Keir Starmer's new Labour cabinet?
There are new faces, old faces, expected appointments and some surprises. These are the key takeaways to know about the people now in No 10.
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In brief:
- Keir Starmer has appointed his new cabinet following a landslide election win, featuring several historic appointments, including Rachel Reeves as the first female Chancellor and a record 11 women in the team of 25.
- The new cabinet is notably the most comprehensively educated in history, with 92% of ministers having attended comprehensive schools, contrasting sharply with the previous government.
- Starmer has made some unexpected appointments, including bringing back experienced figures from the New Labour era and appointing individuals from outside traditional political circles, such as Patrick Vallance and James Timpson.
There’s no sleep for the new government. Keir Starmer didn’t waste any time appointing his cabinet after a landslide win in the general election, with ministers entering Downing Street one by one to officially be appointed.
Jon Sopel described the scene: “There is the picture of them all going into No 10, with their new red folders under their arms, as if they are kids for the first day of senior school where they've got their satchels or their backpacks on and they're going into the classroom that they've never been into before with their new school uniforms”.
But who is the new cabinet and what do we know about the mostly-familiar team supporting Starmer, with noteworthy – and some may say inspiring – appointments among them.
Rachel Reeves, for example, becomes the first ever female chancellor. In fact, there are a record 11 women in the team of 25. One of those is Angela Raynor, a former care-worker who became pregnant at 16, who is now Deputy Prime Minister and secretary of state for leveling up, housing and communities. Bridget Philipson, who was brought up in a council house and received free school meals, is now Education Secretary.
On the topic of education, and taking a broader look at the new cabinet, 92% (23 Cabinet ministers) were educated at comprehensive schools - compared to 19% of Rishi Sunak’s cabinet ministers. This makes it the most comprehensively educated cabinet in history.
As the weekend went on, there were more familiar faces to come - this time, some surprise additions to his team from the years of New Labour.
“They have actually brought back a few old faces,” Lewis Goodall explains.
One is Douglas Alexander, who was a secretary of state under both Blair and Brown. He’s now back as an MP and has been appointed as a Minister in the Department for Business and Trade.
Jacqui Smith, a figure Lewis says "no one saw coming" is back in as Department for Education Minister, having previously served as Home Secretary under Gordon Brown.
Why bring back old faces from the New Labour years?
“I think the reason for this is that Starmer is someone who prizes experience, he is keen to get the governmental machine working. And this does come back to a bit of advice I think Blair has given him in the past, which is that new ministers with no experience take a long time to get used to the government machine,” Lewis notes.
He goes on: “This is a government that knows its mandate, although big, is shallow, because it only got 34% of the vote, there is no great feeling of enthusiasm necessarily. It knows delivery is the word that is being emphasised again and again and again. So they can't afford to wait 18 months or 24 months or 36 months to get into their stride”.
Further unexpected appointments include Patrick Vallance, who most will recognise from appearing regularly on TV briefings during the Covid-19 pandemic. The former government chief scientific adviser will serve as a Minister of State (Minister for Science) in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
Emily describes the unexpected appointment of James Timpson, CEO of the key-cutting and shoe-repairing Timpson Group, as the new Prisons Minister as “a headline appointment”.
She explains why: “[Timpson] has had this policy of engaging ex-prisoners into the workforce in a sense of rehabilitation, so his whole ideology is about what you can do after prison, or why prison doesn't necessarily work as the best solution for most people.”
“It’s a genius appointment if it works,” Emily says, with a caveat: “But I think it will be a hard one to get across to people who think oh, this is Labour going all soft on prisoners, and law and order again.”
From being almost fully state educated to featuring a record number of women, Starmer’s cabinet certainly has notable differences from cabinets gone by.
Now, as the new government takes shape and the key figures settle into their roles, they face the challenge of living up to its mandate and delivering on its promises. Can they turn this carefully assembled team with all their potential into tangible results? That, is to be continued.