Rayner resignation ‘brought forward’ reshuffle, says chief secretary Darren Jones, but he insists there is no split within Labour party
Prime minister Keir Starmer had wanted to carry out his reshuffle on a “slightly slower timetable”, PA reports, but it was “brought forward as a consequence of the former deputy prime minister resigning”, new chief secretary Darren Jones has said this morning, after Angela Rayner stepped down on Friday.
But there will not be an early election, Jones said. Asked about Reform UK leader Nigel Farage’s suggestion that Rayner’s resignation would open up internal Labour splits and prompt a general election as early as 2027, the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster told Sky News:
Nigel Farage is wrong there. The Labour party is not going to split and there won’t be an early election.”
Rayner stood down from the government after the prime minister’s ethics adviser found she had breached the ministerial code over her underpayment of stamp duty on her £800,000 seaside flat. Sir Laurie Magnus found that Rayner had “acted with integrity and with a dedicated and exemplary commitment to public service”, but concluded she had breached the ministerial code over her tax affairs.
