Starmer appoints Lammy as Deputy PM in major reshuffle after Rayner resignation

London: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer was on Friday carrying out a major reshuffle of his cabinet after deputy premier Angela Rayner resigned for breaching ministerial code, British media reported.

Starmer appointed David Lammy as Rayner’s replacement and moved Yvette Cooper from the interior ministry to replace Lammy as foreign secretary, according to the BBC. Cabinet ministers Lucy Powell and Ian Murray confirmed in statements that they were leaving government.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer undertook the first major reshuffle of his cabinet since coming to power in July 2024.

Here’s who has nabbed the top positions in the government:

Foreign affairs: Yvette Cooper

Yvette Cooper, 56, who has been a regular feature on TV screens making statements and doing broadcast interviews in the last year as interior minister, will now take up the post as Britain’s top diplomat.

With mixed success, she tried to take a tough stand at the Home Office on the high levels of immigration and asylum seekers arriving on small boats, as well as on policing issues.

An MP since the late 1990s and a minister in the 2000s, Cooper has decades of experience and was Labour’s home affairs spokesperson over two stints during its 14 years in opposition.

A candidate to be party leader in 2015, pundits credit her grasp of policy and details as well as her communication skills.

Deputy Prime Minister and Justice: David Lammy

Foreign affairs head David Lammy, a trailblazing black lawmaker, was propelled to the number two position in government in the reshuffle, and also handed the justice brief.

Lammy, 53, calls former US president Barack Obama a friend and has made the odd outspoken comment in the past, including about Donald Trump.

But despite receiving flak from the left wing of the party over his position on the war in Gaza, Lammy has managed to avoid major diplomatic gaffes while navigating global conflicts — a track record he would like to continue in Rayner’s ill-fated former post.

Lammy has spent the past year in a balancing act to try and keep Britain on the good side of the Trump administration while repairing ties with the European Union.

He once described Trump as a “neo-Nazi sympathising sociopath” and “profound threat to the international order”.

But he has also struck up a friendship with US Vice President JD Lance, bonding over their Christian faith and difficult childhoods.

Lammy hosted Vance and his family for several days this summer at his government 17th-century mansion Chevening, southern Kent.

Home affairs: Shabana Mahmood

Justice ministry lead Shabana Mahmood, who is the most senior Muslim politician in the UK, will get another career boost and take on Cooper’s previous position as the head of the interior ministry.

Mahmood, who has been described as a rising star of the Labour party, has tried to get to grips with the UK’s prisons capacity crisis, facing public criticisms over early releases of prisoners.

The 44-year-old former barrister has been a Labour MP since 2010 and held multiple shadow minister positions while the party was in opposition.

She however declined to serve in left-wing former party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet.