SIR Keir Starmer tried and failed to boot Ed Miliband from his Net Zero brief, it was claimed today.
The PM is understood to have asked the Energy Secretary to swap jobs and take over disgraced Angela Rayner’s housing department during Friday’s cabinet reshuffle.
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Ed Miliband was supposed to be moved to Housing Secretary in Friday’s cabinet reshuffleCredit: Getty
But the former Labour leader dug in, insisting he wanted to keep control over the green agenda.
Sir Keir has vowed to put growth centre stage as he battles to steady Labour amid grim polling.
His reshaped top team points to a shift rightwards, as he braces for a looming challenge from Nigel Farage and Reform.
Mr Farage and his Deputy Richard Tice have made scrapping Net Zero a central pledge of the party.
Reform has vowed to repurpose billions in green funding to tackling illegal migration and restoring law and order.
No10 this morning insisted the PM is “delighted” Mr Miliband will stay on at the Department of Energy and Net Zero, but did not deny Sir Keir initially tried to move him.
The PM’s spokesman said: “The PM has set out his new Cabinet and ministerial team — a team that is going to be focused on delivery, with growth as a relentless focus.
“The Energy Secretary has been central to that growth agenda. Investing in clean energy goes hand in hand with cutting peoples’ bills and boosting growth across the country.
“You can see that with the investments being made into CCUS all across the country, into solar, into wind farms.
“The PM is delighted he’ll continue to do that.”
Labour sources admit the Net Zero push has been stalling activity, while firms quietly hope workers’ rights reforms could be softened or delayed.
New Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden is preparing a fresh assault on the ballooning benefits bill, after Labour MPs scuppered the last attempt.
But Mr Miliband is seen as the head cheerleader for the “soft left” in Sir Keir’s cabinet.
His popularity with party members gives him the power make demands of the PM to ensure he cannot make trouble from the sidelines.
IT may not be an imposing castle and there’s no Claudia Winkleman but Downing Street has become the stage for a real-life version of The Traitors.
Sir Keir Starmer set the scene for weeks of vicious plotting when he banished his faithful deputy from the Cabinet.
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Angela Rayner’s exit and Starmer’s hasty Cabinet reshuffle is like an episode of The Traitors… now PM must watch his back
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Disgraced Rayner with Starmer and Reeves on the front benchCredit: AFP
His gushing letter to Angela Rayner after she was forced out was true to the hit TV series.
It could be summed up as: “So sorry, Ange. I really like you and I really, really hope it isn’t you. But I’ve got to go with my gut.”
But it hasn’t washed with her admirers who now see her as a standard bearer for Labour’s Left.
The problem for the PM is whether his ousted sidekick will be recruited by The Traitors — a clique of MPs and activists hellbent on revenge.
They think Sir Keir is the real traitor — a class traitor — and are ready to unleash anger and resentment that has been building up over the past 14 months.
The search for her successor will become a divisive and bloody battle for the soul of the party.
One activist declared: “It’s going to be carnage. The knives are out already — and many of them are aimed at Starmer’s back.
“Most MPs can’t stand him or his politics, and over the past week their hatred has gone off the scale.”
Ms Rayner and her supporters are not the only people to harbour a grudge against the PM.
Angela Rayner’s flat VANDALISED with graffiti calling her a ‘tax evader’ after she admitted underpaying stamp duty
Her departure forced him into a hasty Cabinet reshuffle in which several of her colleagues were also thrown under the bus.
One minister dumped in Sir Keir’s shake-up even vowed privately: “I’m going to f*** him up.”
The deputy leadership race could now turn into a proxy war to destabilise the PM and find his successor.
There are whispers about a stalking horse to pave the way for Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham to steal the crown and, bizarrely, that Ed Miliband is pondering a bid for a leadership comeback.
The scandal has also exposed the Prime Minister’s indecision and weakness — flaws he once levelled at Boris Johnson.
Sir Keir allowed Ms Rayner to cling on to her job for eight days after it was revealed she had avoided paying £40,000 stamp duty on her swish new seaside property at Hove, East Sussex.
It was clear that at the very least she was guilty of rank hypocrisy and had to go.
One of his biggest tests will be the Budget on November 26
You’d think after being gifted £2,400 of free spectacles, Sir Keir would have seen what was coming.
But he left it to an ethics adviser to reach the inevitable conclusion — and even then, the PM didn’t sack her but let her resign.
Sir Keir knows he must fix the economy and stop the boats if he has any chance of winning the next General Election.
But the Left has been angered and emboldened, and their opening salvos are likely to be fired at the Labour Conference in Liverpool later this month.
One of his biggest tests will be the Budget on November 26, when drastic action is needed to plug the £50billion black hole in Britain’s finances.
Normally, all the pressure would be on Rachel Reeves to deliver. But the PM sidelined the Chancellor last week to take personal charge of economic policy.
He appointed his own economics guru and poached Ms Reeves’s geeky number two Darren Jones as well as the Chancellor’s chief tax adviser to join his No10 team.
One disgruntled source said: “Keir has made it clear he plans to own the next Budget.
“If that’s the case, he can shoulder all the blame when it goes down like a bag of cold sick.”
Cabinet heavyweight Pat McFadden has been put in charge of forcing through welfare reform, months after benefit cuts were ditched amid a backbench rebellion. His task just got a lot harder.
Time to get a grip
Another big mission — which eclipses any TV challenge Claudia could set — is to tackle the asylum crisis.
Voters are desperate to see this Government deliver on its promises soon
Hardly a surprise, as Sir Keir has had more success removing ministers than asylum seekers.
He has ushered in tough-talking former Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood — who supports chemical castration for serious sex offenders — to head up the dysfunctional department.
The PM knows that if she is unable to get a grip of the nation’s number one concern, he won’t be given time to send in a third team.
Voters are desperate to see this Government deliver on its promises soon.
Sir Keir returned from his summer break to declare he had begun “phase two” of his plan to change Britain.
If it continues like this, there won’t be any time for a phase three.
Voters will ask Sir Keir to reveal whether he’s a Faithful or a Traitor.
Then banish him from Number 10.
REFORM MP Lee Anderson wants schoolkids to wave Union Flags and sing the National Anthem at morning assembly.
Not so much Cool Britannia as School Britannia.
WHILE the nation was entranced by the Angela Rayner scandal, the Green Party elected a former hypnotherapist as its new leader.
Zack Polanski once claimed he could help women who wanted larger breasts by unlocking the power of their minds.
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Zack Polanski once claimed he could help women who wanted larger breasts by unlocking the power of their mindsCredit: Getty
Now he’s turned his attention to growing his membership before persuading the rest of us to reverse Brexit.
I can only imagine how he’ll do that.
Perhaps he’ll mesmerise us into a second referendum with an election speech which goes: “Look into my eyes, look into my eyes.
Incoming Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko says she will focus on weapons production and the economy in her new role.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has appointed a new prime minister and other key leaders in the largest government reshuffle since Russia invaded three years ago.
Yulia Svyrydenko, 39, took over as prime minister from Denys Shmyhal, who had held the post since 2020, following her confirmation on Thursday by Ukraine’s parliament.
Svyrydenko previously served as first deputy prime minister and minister of economic development and trade, roles that brought her in close contact with the administration of United States President Donald Trump. She was credited with negotiating a critical mineral deal between Washington and Kyiv earlier this year that helped thaw an initially frosty relationship between Trump and Zelenskyy.
Svyrydenko said on social media that she intends to focus on expanding Ukraine’s domestic weapons production and the strength of its armed forces, and supporting the economy.
“Our Government sets its course toward a Ukraine that stands firm on its own foundations — military, economic, and social,” she said. “My key goal is real, positive results that every Ukrainian will feel in daily life. War leaves no room for delay. We must act swiftly and decisively,” she said.
It is a great honor for me to lead the Government of Ukraine today.
Our Government sets its course toward a Ukraine that stands firm on its own foundations — military, economic, and social. My key goal is real, positive results that every Ukrainian will feel in daily life.
Outgoing Prime Minister Shmyhal, 49, will step in as defence minister, taking over a ministry that has struggled with a series of corruption scandals.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, 50, will stay in place, but Zelenskyy has named outgoing Justice Minister Olga Stefanishyna, 39, as his next ambassador to the US, pending US approval. Stefanishyna has experience working with the European Union and NATO and also played a role in negotiating the recent mineral deal with the Trump administration.
Stefanishyna will replace outgoing envoy Oksana Markarova, who earned the ire of Trump due to her positive working relationship with the administration of former US President Joe Biden.
Reports last week indicated that Zelenskyy was planning to choose Defence Minister Rustem Umerov as his next US envoy, but he was allegedly not approved by Washington, according to opposition MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak.
Other reshuffles will see deputies Oleksiy Sobolev and Taras Kachka take over as the minister of economy, environment and agriculture and deputy prime minister for European integration.
Despite the shake-up in positions, critics say the new faces in Zelenskyy’s cabinet remain largely the same. They have also accused the Ukrainian leader of consolidating power by stacking key government posts with his “loyalists”.
