MAJOR UK CABINET RESHUFFLE AS DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER RESIGNS

A major upheaval happened at the top levels of the British government on Friday. The Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Housing, Angela Rayner, was forced to resign over a scandal surrounding her property tax affairs. She was found to have violated the Ministerial Code by failing to make full declarations of her tax liabilities on her properties.

The issue, which had been the subject of widespread political debate and speculation in the past few days, came to a head on Friday when Ms Rayner submitted her resignation to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

Just a few days before, the leader of the Labour Party government had stood by his Deputy with a firm defence of her during the weekly Prime Minister's Questions in the UK Parliament/House of Commons.

The departure of Ms Rayner from the Cabinet and the government’s front benches triggered a major reshuffle of the Starmer Cabinet.

The Prime Minister replaced her as Deputy Prime Minister with David Lammy who was serving as Foreign Secretary.

Mr Lammy, who was born in the UK to Guyanese parents, also becomes the UK’s new Justice Secretary and the highest-ranked person of Caribbean background to serve in the British government.

Among the other high-profile Cabinet changes announced on Friday by Prime Minister Starmer was that of Home Secretary Yvette Cooper who takes over from Mr Lammy as Foreign Secretary with a portfolio including the Overseas Territories.