Labour appoints Angela Rayner as shadow housing secretary

Ms Rayner has served as deputy leader of Labour and shadow leader of the opposition since April 2020 and as the MP for Ashton-under-Lyne since 2015.

Since May 2021 she has served as shadow minister for the Cabinet Office and chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster as well as shadow secretary of state for the future of work.

Pat McFadden has now been appointed as the replacement for shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

Ms Rayner has served in a range of opposition posts including from 2016 to 2020 as shadow education secretary.

She has also served as shadow minister for equalities, shadow minister for work and pensions, national campaign co-ordinator for the opposition, opposition whip and party chair of the Labour Party.

Ms Rayner also sat on the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee for three months in 2015.

She grew up on a council estate, and later worked as a care worker for Stockport Council where, according to her website, she “gained experience at the sharp end of public services”.

In July, Ms Rayner attacked the Conservatives on housing in her stand-in appearance at Prime Minister’s Questions.

She said that families were “sick with worry about the cost of the Tory mortgage bombshell” and said the security of renters had been “ripped away” too, with higher mortgage costs handed over to them.

Speaking at Housing 2023, the now former shadow housing secretary Ms Nandy said that Labour will support the Right to Buy scheme but only on the basis of replacing every property sold.

She also said that the party will back social housing to restore it to the second-largest form of tenure.

New shadow secretary of work and pensions

Elsewhere, as part of the cabinet reshuffle, Liz Kendall has been appointed shadow secretary of state for work and pensions. She has spent the past three years as shadow minister for health and social care.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said on Twitter: “Britain deserves a government that wakes up every morning determined to improve the lives of working people.

“That’s what my Labour government, with the team appointed today, will do. We are ready to deliver the change our country needs.”