Yorkshire 'central in Labour's thinking' after reshuffle, claims Keir Starmer

Yvette Cooper and Louise Haigh have joined Rachel Reeves, Ed Miliband and John Healey in Shadow Cabinet posts and Sir Keir said he expects them to work closely with Wigan MP and new Shadow Levelling Up Minister Lisa Nandy on developing policies for the North of England.

Ms Nandy said earlier this week that the reshuffle showed Labour was moving its focus Northwards.

Sir Keir told The Yorkshire Post that the reshuffle was partly about such a shift in direction, as well as promoting individual talent.

“It was a bit of both - I wanted the absolute best players on the pitch but I also wanted to tackle the question of how we make improvements across the country, particularly in the North.

“That’s why Lisa took the levelling up brief which I think is one of the most important briefs in the whole of the Shadow Cabinet and why we’ve got very strong Yorkshire voices around the Shadow Cabinet table.

“It is not just the number of Yorkshire MPs but also the very senior positions they are in which means the North and Yorkshire will be central in our thinking.”

Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford MP Yvette Cooper is the new Shadow Home Secretary, while Sheffield Heeley’s Louise Haigh has become Shadow Transport Secretary, moving from her previous Northern Ireland brief.

They join Shadow Chancellor and Leeds West MP Rachel Reeves and Rother Valley’s John Healey, who has retained the Shadow Defence Secretary role.

Doncaster North MP Ed Miliband remains in the Shadow Cabinet with a revised brief - having previously been Shadow Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Secretary he is now in the newly-created role of Shadow Secretary of State for Climate Change and Net Zero.

In September, the Financial Times reported that Sir Keir’s office had ‘banned’ using the term levelling up in an apparent attempt to prevent the phrase dominating political discourse.

The Labour leader denied that had been the case.

“We don’t go in for bans of words like that in the Labour Party. What we’ve said - and it may have come from this - is that levelling up is just an empty slogan. It is two words that don’t mean anything.”

He said he did not accept that appointing a new Shadow Levelling Up Secretary was an admission that the term is shaping the nation’s political debate.

“I think levelling up for the Government is just a slogan. We have been promised a Levelling Up White Paper for a long time and still haven’t seen it.

“For us, what we mean by that is making sure the inequalities across all of our regions are dealt with and we have thriving regions across the country.

“We want to make sure there is proper long-term equality across the country.”

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