Angela Rayner has been given a new senior shadow cabinet role as chair of the Labour party.
And with the title of shadow education secretary removed from her social media biography, there was a vacancy in the job that she had for nearly four years.
The news comes after Saturday’s announcement that Ms Rayner had won Labour’s deputy leadership election.
Today it was confirmed that Rebecca Long-Bailey would succeed Ms Rayner as shadow education secretary.
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In an acceptance speech sent from her mobile phone, Ms Rayner, who has been recovering from a suspected case of coronavirus, said: “Things have dramatically changed in our country but our values remain the same, and - more important now than ever - we must now reflect those values, standing up for public services and for a society in which people work together and look after one another.”
Rayner steps down as shadow education secretary
Your support means everything. I will never stop fighting for our movement. ? pic.twitter.com/MIdls0n3WG
- Angela Rayner MP ? (@AngelaRayner) April 4, 2020
Other shadow cabinet posts announced so far include:
- Nick Thomas-Symonds, shadow home secretary
- Anneliese Dodds, shadow chancellor of the Exchequer
- Rachel Reeves, shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
- Lisa Nandy, shadow foreign secretary
As education secretary, Ms Rayner announced at last year’s Labour Party conference that her party would abolish Ofsted, university tuition fees and the “spiralling cost of school uniforms” while introducing free nursery education.
And she told journalists at last year’s annual conference of the NEU teaching union that she felt “emotional” when Jeremy Corbyn said that Labour would abolish Sats.
She said: “Sats warp the system. They narrow the curriculum and teachers are stressed because they’re having to teach to the test.”
