The China Mail - Starmer shakes up top team after deputy Rayner quits

Rayner, a figurehead among Labour's left-wing base, quit after an investigation found that she had breached the ministerial code over the purchase of a flat in southern England.

Her departure prompted Starmer to carry out the first major cabinet reshuffle of his stuttering 14-month-old premiership, during which the hard-right Reform UK party has overtaken Labour in popularity.

Starmer replaced Rayner with Foreign Secretary David Lammy, whose post as Britain's top diplomat will be taken by interior minister Yvette Cooper, the BBC reported.

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood will succeed Cooper at the Home Office, while Lammy will also take on the justice brief, the broadcaster added.

The shake-up comes after Rayner's resignation dealt the latest blow to Starmer's flagging government that has lurched from one storm to another since he became prime minister in July last year.

It has been forced to U-turn on welfare reforms and fuel benefits for the elderly, while its failure to stop undocumented migrants arriving on small boats has bolstered support for Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage.

Rayner this week admitted not paying enough tax on a seaside flat she bought and referred herself to the government's independent ethics adviser.

In a letter to Starmer, ethics chief Laurie Magnus wrote that Rayner had failed to "heed the caution" of legal advice she had received so he considered the "code to have been breached".

"I accept that I did not meet the highest standards," Rayner wrote in her resignation letter, adding she would also be stepping down as housing minister and deputy leader of the Labour Party.

"I deeply regret my decision to not seek additional specialist tax advice," Rayner said, adding she took "full responsiblity for this error".

In his reply, Starmer told her he was "very sad" to lose her from government, but added: "You will remain a major figure in our party".

Rayner disclosed on Wednesday that she had underpaid stamp duty, a property tax, on the apartment following days of reports suggesting that she had saved £40,000 ($53,000) by removing her name from the deeds of another property.

- 'Complexity' -

The 45-year-old has three sons, one of whom was born prematurely and is registered blind with lifelong special needs.

She said that after her 2023 divorce she sold her part of the family home to a trust fund set up for her son in order to secure the specially-adapted house for her child's future. She then used the money to help buy the £800,000-flat in Hove.

Rayner paid less tax because she claimed the flat was her main home rather than a second home. She later conceded this was wrong since her son is under 18 and therefore she was deemed to still have an interest in the former family home.

The ethics chief said the rules "entailed a considerable degree of complexity" and recognised that Rayner had twice been advised that the lower rate of stamp duty was applicable.

That advice, however, was qualified by the admission that it did not constitute expert tax advice. Rayner's failure to seek further guidance meant she "cannot be considered to have met the highest possible standards of proper conduct", said Magnus.

Rayner had been tipped as a potential future Labour leader and has been a top target for political attacks by the opposition Conservatives and right-wing media.

She left school with no qualifications after becoming pregnant aged 16, and has a straight-talking style that has proved popular with working-class voters.

She grew up in Stockport on the outskirts of Manchester in northwest England, living in one of the area's most deprived social housing complexes.

Labour trail Reform in the polls, although the next general election is not expected until 2029.

L.Johnson--ThChM