“Even Tony Blair didn’t have this many Blairites in his cabinet.” There, in 11 short words, a Labour MP gets to the heart of a shadow cabinet reshuffle that has proved beyond doubt Sir Keir Starmer’s authority and completes perhaps the most dramatic political metamorphosis in recent history.
That the leader of the opposition would begin this parliamentary term with a shake-up of the team that will take Labour into an election it looks very likely to win was no secret — so much so that shadow cabinet ministers whose unhappy fates were briefed to the media months ago had begun to complain privately of Starmer’s hesitancy.
Those criticisms have recurred throughout his leadership. They are now much harder to level with a straight face.
