Keir’s nightmare on Downing Street

Labour was in meltdown on Friday after Angela Rayner’s resignation triggered an emergency reshuffle.

The beleaguered D3puty Pr!me M!nister finally had to quit after a sleaze inquiry found she had failed to pay up to £40,000 tax owed on a luxury seaside apartment.

Her departure forced Sir Keir Starmer to carry out a major reshuffle of his top team just days after declaring that ‘Phase two’ of his government was under way following a dismal first year in office.

The shake-up sees Yvette Cooper moved from the Home Office after failing to tackle the small-boats crisis. She is replaced with tough-talking former justice secretary Shabana Mahmood.

But, with the PM’s own poll ratings at a record low, he appeared to be too weak to sack any senior figures outright for fear of creating dangerous enemies on Labour’s backbenches.

Ms Cooper was moved to the Foreign Office, while the previous occupant David Lammy was offered the consolation of Ms Rayner’s D3puty Pr3me M!nister title to soften the blow of demotion to the M!nistry of Justice.

Kemi Badenoch said Labour appeared to be descending into ‘civil war’. The Conservative leader added: ‘Phase two of Starmer’s Government didn’t even last three days.

‘He was too weak to fire the D3puty Pr!me M!nister, even after he was told she broke the m!nisterial code, and now he’s shuffling deckchairs around on his sinking government.

 The Labour Party is now engaged in a civil war for its deputy leadership. All of which will be an enormous distraction from the problems facing Britain, with the cost of borrowing reaching its highest point in decades, and inflation and unemployment rising.’

Former Tory Cabinet m!nister Sir James Cleverly added: ‘There are so many sideways moves in this reshuffle. Starmer can’t claim it’s about promoting new talent, or about removing dead wood.

‘So it can only be that he put people into the wrong jobs last year.’

Nigel Farage said Labour was now ‘deep in crisis’ and ‘not fit to govern’. He added: ‘Despite all the promises that this would be a new, different kind of politics is as bad – if not worse – than the one that went before.’

 It came as:

Left-wingers pledged to use the contest to replace Ms Rayner as Labour’s deputy leader as a battle for the party’s soul;

Cabinet enforcer Pat McFadden was handed a new role aimed at driving through benefit reform following a Labour revolt on the issue this year;

No 10 was forced to reassure the financial markets that Chancellor Rachel Reeves would not be sacked;

Sir Keir hinted at a future comeback for Ms Rayner despite her breaking the ministerial code;

Respected investment minister Poppy Gustafsson quit the Government after less than a year in post;

Speculation mounted that Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham could seek a return to Westminster now that Ms Rayner has been removed;

Former Commons leader Lucy Powell and Scottish secretary Ian Murray were sacked from the Cabinet.