British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Friday (September 4, 2025) appointed Foreign Secretary David Lammy as Deputy Prime Minister in a serious Cabinet reshuffle following the resignation of Angela Rayner over a tax underpayment row.
Ms. Rayner, who additionally held the Housing Secretary portfolio, stepped down after admitting to underpaying tax on a brand new dwelling she lately purchased on the south coast of England.
Mr. Lammy, 53, has been promoted to the put up of Deputy PM with extra cost as Justice Secretary.
As a part of the reshuffle, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper shifts to succeed him as Secretary of State within the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and British Pakistani Shabana Mahmood will get elevated to the Home Office from the Ministry of Justice as a part of a wide-ranging reset on the high tier of presidency.
Ms. Rayner, 45, a robust chief inside the Labour Party, handed in her resignation after a sped-up unbiased ethics inquiry concluded that she had breached the Ministerial Code of Conduct by failing to hunt out specialist tax recommendation to make sure she paid the proper stamp obligation on the property.
Starmer regrets shedding Rayner
Mr. Starmer expressed his remorse at shedding his senior-most minister after Sir Laurie Magnus, his Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards, knowledgeable him that his deputy couldn’t be thought-about to have met the “highest possible standards of proper conduct”and subsequently was in breach of the Ministerial Code of Conduct.
Britain’s former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner
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Reuters
“You were right to refer yourself to the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Adviser and right to act on his conclusions,” he mentioned, in a uncommon hand-written letter in response to Rayner’s resignation.
“On a personal note, I am very sad to be losing you from the Government. You have been a trusted colleague and a true friend for many years. I have nothing but admiration for you and huge respect for your achievements in politics,” Mr. Starmer mentioned, including that she is going to stay a “major figure” within the Labour Party as she strikes to the backbenches.
Ms. Rayner, Labour’s member of Parliament for Ashton-under-Lyne in northern England, who additionally held the influential put up of Secretary of State of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, mentioned she deeply regretted her determination to “not seek additional specialist tax advice”.
“I would like to take this opportunity to repeat that it was never my intention to do anything other than pay the right amount. I must also consider the significant toll that the ongoing pressure of the media is taking on my family,” she mentioned in her resignation letter to the PM.
The letters had been launched by 10 Downing Street together with the letter to Mr. Starmer from Laurie Magnus, who described his conclusion as “highly unfortunate”.
“She [Rayner] believed that she relied on the legal advice she had received, but unfortunately did not heed the caution contained within it, which acknowledged that it did not constitute expert tax advice and which suggested that expert advice be sought,” he wrote.
He added: “I consider Ms. Rayner has acted with integrity and with a devoted and exemplary dedication to public service. I contemplate, nonetheless, that her unlucky failure to settle her SDLT [stamp duty] legal responsibility on the right stage, coupled with the truth that this was established solely following intensive public scrutiny, leads me to advise you that, in relation to this matter, she can’t be thought-about to have met the ‘highest possible standards of proper conduct’ as envisaged by the Code.
“Accordingly, it is with deep regret that I must advise you that in these circumstances, I consider the Code to have been breached.” Earlier this week, after weeks of intense media coverage, Rayner had revealed a complex arrangement with her ex-husband over the care of her disabled son involving another property that remains a family home.
Under the stamp duty requirements for home-buyers in England, anyone buying a second property is expected to pay an additional surcharge.
Ms. Rayner had initially classified her new seaside flat in Hove as a primary residence, which would be subject to only the basic rate of stamp duty. However, given the additional family home held in trust for her son, she owed an estimated 40,000 pounds more to the tax authorities than previously calculated.
