KEIR STARMER says his reshuffle provides a “smaller, more focused shadow cabinet that mirrors the shape of the government we are shadowing.”

As we know at least one of the departures — Cat Smith, who is apparently not being replaced as shadow secretary for young people and democracy — quit on principle, its smaller size may not be entirely Starmer’s choice, but his words do point to an important aspect of the new line-up.

As well as a shuffle to the right, it marks another quiet step away from the transformational ambition of Labour under Jeremy Corbyn, where the purpose of the top team was not simply to shadow existing ministers but to flesh out what Labour planned to do in power, including in areas of no interest to the Conservatives. 

Smith’s resignation note makes it clear that her main reason for resigning is the ongoing suspension of the whip from Jeremy Corbyn, which she rightly points out is a daily insult to his constituents and ordinary party members and is crippling Labour’s ability to campaign. 

But she also references Labour’s lack of interest in reform of the electoral system.

While proportional representation is not the panacea some on the left see in it — electoral coalitions are as likely to favour the right as the left, as we saw with the Tory-Lib Dem government from 2010-15 — Smith does highlight the constitutional conservatism that characterises Starmer’s Labour.

His project is about restoring faith in the British Establishment, not challenging it, a feature also evident in its loyalty to an inflexible unionism that is demonstrably not working for Labour in Scotland and looks increasingly unsustainable too in Northern Ireland.

A similar logic is evident in the absence of the employment rights brief — again a post left empty by a resignation, when Andy McDonald quit during Labour conference over Starmer’s opposition to a £15 minimum wage.

Starmer’s emphasis on “mirroring the shape of the government” makes this position, which does not exist in the government, redundant: but politically this is also a retreat. 

Labour opened its own conference by sketching out a “new deal for workers” that was less ambitious than the TUC campaign of the same name but did include important commitments, especially on sectoral collective bargaining, maintaining much of the Manifesto for Labour Law produced by the Institute of Employment Rights which formed the core of Labour’s workers’ rights programme under Corbyn. 

The decision not to bother replacing McDonald in the role indicates that this is at best a low priority for Starmer and will probably — like his promises on support for public ownership of energy and water — be downplayed for a period before being formally dropped.

Labour is, as its leader told the recent CBI conference, “backing business” and is not interested in shifting the balance of power in the workplace towards workers.

If the roles that no longer exist tell us the most about Starmer’s intentions, most of the appointments follow a similar pattern. 

Rightwinger Jonathan Reynolds replaces Ed Miliband as shadow business secretary: Miliband has probably not been forgiven for loudly reasserting Labour’s commitments to public ownership just ahead of a conference at which Starmer disowned them (though in a media interview rather than at conference itself).

Reynolds spoke out against energy nationalisation in October in typical Westminster-waffle, claiming it was not the solution to the price rise crisis that “will find the way forward for the position people are in.”

Such vacuous non-arguments against any alternative to the status quo are what qualify him for the business brief.

Miliband retains the climate change brief, but by isolating it from wider economic policy Starmer again mirrors the Tories by presenting “net zero” as a standalone issue rather than one which requires an overhaul of our economic structures. 

Health goes to Wes Streeting, a prominent rightwinger who condemned Corbyn’s public ownership commitments and is unlikely to campaign for a thorough clearout of the profiteers infesting our NHS. 

Emily Thornberry’s demotion from international trade paves the way for a further shift right: Thornberry was not a consistent socialist in the role (nor was she as shadow foreign secretary under Corbyn) and joined in the Russia and China-bashing of the new cold war, but did maintain a principled stance against arms to Saudi Arabia and proposed reforms this autumn to ensure future trade deals are subject to greater democratic oversight and are assessed on their likely impact on jobs and pay. We’ll see if such commitments outlast her. 

She’s replaced in that role by Nick Thomas-Symonds, himself demoted to make way for Yvette Cooper in the shadow home brief she held under Ed Miliband. 

The most talked-about appointment of the reshuffle, Cooper is sometimes praised for her criticism of the Theresa May government over the Windrush scandal, though her role was exaggerated by the mainstream media’s reluctance to properly cover Labour’s front bench in the Corbyn years meaning that then shadow home secretary Diane Abbott — who unlike Cooper voted against the 2014 Immigration Act and actually warned May at the time that it would result in racist deportations of British citizens — was not given the credit she was due for leading Labour’s attacks on the government. 

Cooper’s actual record on immigration is poor — she was shadow home secretary when Labour unveiled its notorious “controls on immigration” mugs, and under Miliband proposed a two-tier benefits system that would see migrants entitled to less (which would, through leaving migrant workers at the mercy of unscrupulous employers, tend to drive down pay and conditions for all workers). 

Her pitch as shadow home secretary in the past was that Labour, not the Tories, were the true party of “law and order.”

Given the British state’s increasing authoritarianism under the current government — with its crackdown on protest through the Policing Bill, its bid to place state agents above the law and its anti-refugee hysteria — we need an opposition that stands up for civil liberties, free speech and human rights, but it seems unlikely on her record that Cooper will contribute to one.

The other big promotion is David Lammy as shadow foreign secretary.

Few on the left will miss Lisa Nandy’s Atlanticist posturing and cold war rhetoric (though it is unclear if Nandy has actually been demoted: Labour’s media line that her new role shadowing “levelling-up” minister Michael Gove is actually more prominent makes electoral sense, especially as there is now so little to distinguish Labour from the Tories on foreign policy). 

Lammy has campaigned strongly against racism — including when it has obvious links to foreign policy, having condemned the rise in anti-Chinese street racism we have seen since the beginning of the new cold war — but there is no reason to believe he will be able or willing to challenge the return to militarism and support for overseas wars that Nandy championed and which runs deep in the Parliamentary Labour Party.