Latest updates: Kim Johnson, the MP for Liverpool Riverside, says she was ‘very disappointed with how Starmer had treated deputy leader
- Angela Rayner takes major role after Keir Starmer reshuffle standoff
- Winners and losers: Starmer’s shadow cabinet reshuffle
- Analysis: briefings, silence and sackings as faith in leader slips
Andy Burnham, who was re-elected as the Labour mayor for Greater Manchester last week, has also criticised the way the shadow cabinet reshuffle was held. He said:
I didn’t like the way that was handled, I’ll be honest, and I didn’t see why we were getting a negative story on Saturday night when myself and Steve Rotheram and other people around the country had good victories to celebrate, so that wasn’t right, but I don’t think the way Angela was treated was right.
But it’s been resolved and we move on from this morning. There’s a shadow cabinet in place now
I can’t support this.https://t.co/mbmGHaROdL
Angela Rayner may have been relatively coy in her Twitter feed (see 9.33am) about what she felt at the weekend about reading reports saying that she was going to be demoted but on BBC News a few minutes ago one of her allies gave a much blunter assessment.
Kim Johnson, the Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside who worked with Rayner before they both were elected to parliament and who subsequently served as Rayner’s parliamentary private secretary, said she was “very disappointed” about the way Sir Keir Starmer treated Rayner. Johnson went on:
[Rayner] was scapegoated because Keir, after the dismal and disappointing election results, said he was going to take full responsibility. And then to apportion blame to Angie and to sack her from her position was a despicable act of cowardice from my point of view.
But, hey, what a difference a day makes – from being sacked to gaining three key positions on the front bench, and I do really look forward to seeing Ange the despatch box against Michael Gove.
To say in the one instance that I will take full responsibility for the disappointing electoral results, and then to sack Angie on Saturday, while we were still getting some positive results …
