Starmer overhauls his government after his deputy prime minister resigns over a tax error
By Jill Lawless and Pan Pylas
London (AP) – British Prime Minister Keir Starmer rocked his cabinet on Friday after his first assistant resigned on a tax error on a recent purchase of the house, leaving a big hole in the Labor Government of the Center -Gauche.
Foreign Minister David Lammy was moved to replace Angela Rayner as Deputy Prime Minister and also took the justice portfolio. Yvette Cooper has moved from the Ministry of the Interior to become Foreign Affairs Secretary while the Secretary of Justice, Shabana Mahmood, became a home secretary.
The head of the Treasury, Rachel Reeves, was held in post, which means that the three main state offices below the Prime Minister will be occupied by women for the first time in history.
The changes occurred after Rayner resigned to Starmer because an independent investigation concluded that she had not respected the required ethical standards of the government’s ministers on his recent purchase of an apartment in Hove, on the southern coast of England. The report concludes that she should have asked for more specific advice, even if she acted in good faith.
“I take full responsibility for this error,” said Rayner in his resignation letter to Starmer. “I would like to take this opportunity to repeat that I never intended to do something other than paying the right amount.”
In response, Starmer expressed his sadness, but said that Rayner had made the right decision to withdraw.
“I have only admiration for you and enormous respect for your politics achievements,” wrote Starmer. The handwritten letter signed “with better wishes and with real sadness”.
Rayner is an extremely popular member of the Labor Party and has been widely designed to be a potential successor of Starmer. In addition to resigning as Deputy Prime Minister, Rayner has left the post of deputy leader of the party, which means that the members will have to select someone again.
Starmer hopes that his government changes will allow him to seize the political agenda according to the days of speculation surrounding the future of Rayner.
His government has seen his support decreased sharply since his victory for landslides in last year’s elections, following a series of missteps on the reform of well-being and the assembly of public concerns concerning immigration.
Rayner will remain a British legislator on the rear benches. She referred to the independent advisor to ministerial standards, Laurie Magnus on Wednesday, who delivered her report to Starmer on Friday.
Although Magnus concluded that Rayner had “acted with integrity and with a devoted and exemplary commitment to public service”, he said that “with a deep regret”, she had violated the code of conduct of ministers.
In the United Kingdom, samples are billed on purchases of goods, with higher costs due to more expensive houses and secondary residences. The reports suggested that Rayner saved 40,000 pounds (almost $ 54,000) by not paying the appropriate tax, known as the buffer, when it is purchased from 800,000 pounds ($ 1 million).
Rayner, 45, had sought to explain that his “complex life agreements” linked to his divorce in 2023 and to the fact that his son had “life disabilities” inflicted his inability to pay the appropriate tax.
In his letter of resignation, Rayner said that she should also “consider the significant assessment that the continuous media pressure would face my family”.
The Rayner’s journey of the single mother teenager to a union official to the legislator and the vice-premier minister is a rarity of British politics.
Her attitude without frills and his simple way were a distinct – and politically useful contrast – with the more pragmatic and lawyer starmer and it will be difficult to replace. She had the capacity to connect with sections of the public with which Starmer had trouble since he became Prime Minister.
Rayner, who also owned the housing brief, had often reprimanded against those who deliberately underlie taxes, in particular those of the previous conservative administration, which the work replaced in July 2024.
His previous comments had inaugurated her with accusations of hypocrisy, in particular of the current conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who said that Rayner’s position had been “untenable for days”.
“The truth is simple, she dodged the tax,” said Badenoch in a video published on social networks. “She lied about it.”
