The new cabinet: Who is in Sir Keir Starmer’s top team? | Politics News

Sir Keir Starmer has begun announcing his new cabinet – hours after taking power in a landslide victory.

Here’s who the new prime minister has appointed:

Angela Rayner

Rayner has been Sir Keir Starmer’s deputy since he was elected Labour leader in 2020.

She also becomes levelling up secretary – a shadow brief that she also held.

Born and raised on a council estate in Stockport, Greater Manchester, she had her first child at the age of 16, crediting New Labour’s Sure Start policy with ensuring her life “wasn’t written off”.

She worked as a carer and then a trade union leader before entering party politics.

Earlier this year she faced questions over the sale of her council house but police and tax authorities confirmed there had been no wrongdoing.

Rachel Reeves

Reeves worked for the Bank of England and then HBOS before entering the Commons in 2010.

As a teenager growing up in Lewisham, south London, she won the British under-14 chess championship before going to study at Oxford.

She says she turned down a job at Goldman Sachs, despite the fact it would have made her “much richer”.

Reeves took over as shadow chancellor in May 2021 and along with Sir Keir has helped reshape Labour’s relationship with the business community and has stressed the importance of fiscal discipline. Her younger sister Ellie Reeves is also a Labour MP.

Yvette Cooper

Cooper and her husband Ed Balls are both veterans of New Labour – having had various ministerial roles under Sir Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

Cooper’s included chief secretary to the Treasury, work and pensions secretary, as well as health, and housing minister. While at the Department of Health she was the first minister in the UK to ever take maternity leave.

She ran for the Labour leadership against Jeremy Corbyn in 2016, coming third to Corbyn and Andy Burnham.

David Lammy

Lammy has represented Tottenham, where he grew up, since 2000 when he won the by-election triggered by the death of Labour’s Bernie Grant.

He was the first black Briton to attend Harvard Law School, where he met and befriended Barack Obama.

Under New Labour he served as minister for higher education and culture. By contrast, he endorsed his friend Jeremy Corbyn for the party leadership in 2016.

Lammy has written widely about the 2011 London riots, which began in his constituency. He has also condemned Oxford University for not accepting enough black and ethnic minority students.