LABOUR leader Sir Keir Starmer was condemned yesterday for stripping his front bench of positions dedicated to workers’ rights and mental health.

The party announced its reshuffle as MPs returned from the summer recess, with Angela Rayner promoted to shadow levelling-up secretary alongside her deputy leader role.

Lisa Nandy, described as a member of Labour’s “soft left,” was demoted from shadow levelling-up secretary to take on the international development brief.

But Dr Rosena Allin-Khan’s position as shadow minister for mental health was scrapped, and in a veiled attack on Sir Keir’s decision not to scrap the much-criticised two-child benefit cap, she said: “Children shouldn’t be growing up in poverty.” 

And Ms Rayner is no longer shadow secretary for the future of work, marking the first time Labour hasn’t had a front-bench position dedicated to workers since 2019, though she retains her brief as strategic lead for Labour’s new deal for working people, and will have a bigger media profile than afforded by her previous role as shadow cabinet secretary.

Sir Keir said: “I’m really pleased that having put in the hard yards to change the Labour Party. We now have such a strong team on the pitch that is ready to deliver the change our country desperately needs.”

But Momentum called the reshuffle “perhaps the most Blairite since Blair.”

A spokesman said: “It is deeply concerning that the shadow cabinet will no longer have dedicated representatives for mental health or workers’ rights, as they have had in recent years.

“We hope that this is not a sign that Labour’s commitments in these areas will be watered down.

“Elsewhere, it is frankly alarming to see Liz Kendall appointed to the work and pensions role despite her track record of supporting Tory attacks on benefits, which saw her rejected by over 95 per cent of Labour members in 2015.”

The pre-election shake-up began when the shadow environment secretary Jim McMahon announced he was stepping down.

It came on the same day as the former senior civil servant Sue Gray, who led the official investigation into the partygate scandal that  brought down Boris Johnson, started her new job as the Labour leader’s chief-of-staff.

Shabana Mahmood also takes over from Steve Reed as shadow justice secretary.