Labour’s Lisa Nandy has been moved over to shadow Michael Gove, as the opposition takes aim at the flagship levelling up agenda.
The former shadow foreign secretary is seen as a far more high-profile person for the role, which was previously held by Steve Reed.
Lucy Powell, formerly shadow housing secretary, has been moved over to shadow the culture secretary.
The reshuffle of Keir Starmer’s top team came as a surprise to even his own deputy. Angela Rayner was only told about it an hour before she was due to make a speech on Tory sleaze.
While Nandy’s move is technically a demotion, senior figures around the Labour leader view her new role as crucial to winning the next general election by challenging the government on its levelling up agenda, which promises to pour investment into northern towns.
Starmer said he was “particularly delighted” that Nandy had agreed to take on the role.
“After 11 years of Conservative mismanagement of our economy, delivering prosperity to all regions and nations in the UK will be a defining mission of the next Labour government, and there will be nobody better than Lisa to lead this work,” he said.
