Reeves rises while Dodds drops in Labour reshuffle

Sir Keir Starmer has replaced Anneliese Dodds with Rachel Reeves as shadow chancellor.
Sir Keir Starmer with Rachel Reeves who has been promoted to shadow chancellor
PA Wire
Caitlin Doherty9 May 2021

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has reshuffled his shadow cabinet after the party’s disappointing election performance.

Among the changes are the promotion of Rachel Reeves to shadow chancellor, while Anneliese Dodds, her predecessor in the role, becomes party chairman.

– Rachel Reeves

Former economist Ms Reeves has added shadow chancellor to the long list of shadow roles she has held during her decade in Parliament.

First elected to represent Leeds West in 2010, within six months she was the shadow minister for pensions. After subsequent roles at shadowing in the Treasury and Department for Work and Pensions, Ms Reeves assumed the role of shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster – opposite Michael Gove – when Sir Keir became party leader.

The Andrew Marr Show
PA Wire

She was good friends with constituency neighbour Jo Cox who was killed in 2016. Paying a tearful tribute to her colleague in the Commons days after her death, Ms Reeves said of Ms Cox: “Batley and Spen will go on, to elect a new MP, but no one can replace a mother.”

Politics runs in the family, and Ms Reeves is married to a former private secretary and speech writer of Gordon Brown.

Her younger sister, Ellie also has a seat in Parliament as the Labour MP for Lewisham West and Penge, and serves as the shadow Solicitor General.

Before arriving in Westminster, Ms Reeves worked as an economist at the Bank of England and the British Embassy in Washington DC.

The Andrew Marr Show
PA Wire

– Anneliese Dodds

Labour MP for Oxford East since June 2017, Ms Dodds was an MEP for South East England for four years before taking her seat on the opposition benches.

A year after her election, she was made shadow financial secretary to the Treasury, before receiving her promotion to the shadow front bench in April last year.

A mother of two young children, 43-year-old Ms Dodds’ media skills were put to the test just days into her role as shadow chancellor, when her daughter burst in during an interview with Sky News.

“I thought she was going to stay asleep, sorry… so embarrassing,” Ms Dodds said when asked about the moment at the interview’s close.

“She’s thankfully under the chair now.”

Ms Dodds has now been relegated to the role of party chairman and chair of Labour Policy Review.

Before politics, Aberdeen-born Ms Dodds worked as an academic and it is thought her research focused on public policy and risk in different industries, sectors and nations.

– Sir Alan Campbell

Labour’s new chief whip is Sir Alan Campbell, who had served as the deputy chief whip since 2010.

Sir Alan, who has been the MP for Tynemouth in the north east of England since 1997, has not broken the Labour Party whip.

He is one of the current longest serving members of his party’s frontbench, having first been appointed to it in May 2005.

At the 2010 general election, Sir Alan was one of the very few Labour MPs re-elected by an increased majority.

He was a teacher before becoming an MP.

– Nick Brown

Labour Party leadership contest
PA Archive

Labour MP for Newcastle East for the past 37 years, Mr Brown has been demoted from his role as chief whip in the shadow cabinet.

Since becoming an MP in 1983 he served intermittently as the party’s chief whip alongside other cabinet roles under governments led by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and oppositions under Jeremy Corbyn and Sir Keir.

Mr Brown is known to have a love for classical music and is a patron of Leeds Youth Opera, the only youth opera in the country run by volunteers.

Before entering politics, he worked as a legal adviser to trade union GMB in Newcastle upon Tyne.

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