UK's Labour in turmoil after deputy leader's exit

United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer has overhauled his Cabinet following the resignation of his deputy on Friday, but the revamp may not satisfy voters from the party's far left and the north of England, experts have warned.

The reshuffle was triggered by the departure of Angela Rayner — the UK's deputy prime minister, its housing minister, and deputy leader of the ruling Labour Party — after she admitted not paying 40,000 pounds ($54,000) of tax due after she bought her second home.

Her resignation was an excruciatingly embarrassing moment for the government, which had been in office for little more than a year.

Besides, the scandal will likely cause the most damage to the government because Rayner was a darling of the party's hard left, having come from a staunchly working-class background and having overcome the challenges of teenage motherhood. She had thousands of loyal supporters from similar backgrounds who may now take their votes elsewhere.

Concern over balance

As Labour Party lawmakers began the process of choosing her replacement as deputy party leader, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham told Sky News he fears her departure will bolster a London-centric, center-right party elite.

"I am concerned about the balance, … we need to use the deputy leadership contest to discuss some of these things," he said.

Within the Cabinet, David Lammy has been appointed to Rayner's role as deputy prime minister, Yvette Cooper has been reassigned from home secretary to Lammy's former position as foreign minister, and Shabana Mahmood has been named home secretary.

Whoever ends up as deputy leader of the center-left party will face a huge challenge from the far-right Reform UK party, which is riding high in opinion polls because of widespread unhappiness about the number of migrants crossing the border. And it will face a challenge from the far left, with voters disillusioned about Rayner's exit likely to be tempted by a new, as yet unnamed, party being created by former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.

He told Sky News: "There's some really bad moves they've done in the past 12 months. They haven't done much to redistribute wealth. They haven't done much to empower people. And indeed, the public cynicism of this government is pretty deep."

And that cynicism was evident when Christina McAnea, general secretary of Unison, the UK's largest trade union by membership size, said she feared Rayner's departure would lead to a watering down of the Employment Rights Bill, which aims to protect against unfair dismissal and ban zero-hours contracts.

"We will do everything we can to make sure this is not watered down," the BBC quoted her as saying. "We're expecting a clear timetable, and if that doesn't happen, there will be some very, very unhappy trade union leaders around, including me."

Labour Party lawmaker Emily Thornberry, who is planning to run for deputy leader, said the threat from Nigel Farage's Reform UK is, however, the main challenge.

"We will have in the next election the biggest fight of our lives coming against Farage," Sky News quoted her as saying.

Defense Secretary John Healey told the BBC the government will undoubtedly miss Rayner because "she's been an inspiration to many, particularly working-class women", but that Starmer's "clear, swift, fair action" has delivered a "good team" capable of meeting the challenges.