Starmer’s reshuffle goes wrong again

Keir Starmer would have been hoping for a case of second time lucky today as he reshuffles his front bench again, following a botched attempt in the aftermath of the local election results. Back then, the Labour leader got off to a bad start when he tried to move his deputy Angela Rayner from one of her briefs. She refused and then the whole reshuffle ground to a halt. In the end, Rayner ended up with more jobs than she started.

This time around there are similar hints of trouble. Rayner has spent her morning giving a speech on Labour’s plan to clamp down on outside interests (my piece from earlier this month explains why she is fronting this campaign) which her supporters saw as headline news. But now Rayner needs to compete with a reshuffle that she appears not to have been fully briefed on.