Westminster update: new prime minister appoints his cabinet

One thing you need to do

As a new government takes the reins, we are outlining our vision for the future of the profession and the justice system more widely.

In our key asks, we call on the government to unleash legal services to drive economic growth, renew its commitment to the rule of law, and protect access to justice.

What you need to know

1. New prime minister appoints his cabinet

Immediately after the election last week, the newly appointed prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, began appointed his team of ministers for his new government.

As anticipated, the cabinet has broadly remained the same as the shadow team Sir Keir led into the election.

Rachel Reeves takes her post as the first female chancellor of the exchequer.

Shabana Mahmood was appointed lord chancellor and secretary of state for justice, becoming the first Muslim woman to hold the post.

Yvette Cooper takes her place as home secretary and Angela Rayner was appointed as deputy prime minister and secretary of state for housing, communities and local government.

In one of the few changes made to the former shadow cabinet, Emily Thornberry was not appointed as attorney general.

Instead, Richard Hermer KC, a figure from outside the parliamentary Labour party, has been given the role. He will be appointed to the House of Lords so he can take his place in the cabinet.

Entrepreneur James Timpson was appointed as prisons minister, and will be given a peerage to enable him to take up his role.

Timpson has taken a keen interest in the justice system and prison reform, and 10% of his company’s workforce is made up of ex-prisoners.

Newly elected barrister MP Sarah Sackman is Sir Keir’s new solicitor general.

A Harvard Law and Cambridge alumna, her experience covers the appellate courts at all levels including the Supreme Court. She also regularly appears at planning inquiries.

Former opposition whip and shadow health secretary Heidi Alexander has been named as a justice minister.

Alexander was initially elected as an MP in 2010 but stepped down in 2018 to become deputy mayor of London for transport under Sadiq Khan.

The MP for Pontypridd Alex Davies-Jones and Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede have also been named as parliamentary under-secretary of state in the Ministry of Justice.

Similarly to the new justice minister, we do not yet know Davies-Jones and Lord Ponsonby’s specific responsibilities.

2. Sunak appoints his interim shadow cabinet

As the Tories lick their election wounds, Sunak took what’s left of his parliamentary party and appointed his shadow team.

Many returning members of the former government kept their positions, albeit now as shadows, with:

• Jeremy Hunt appointed shadow chancellor
• James Cleverly taking up the mantle of shadow home secretary
• Oliver Dowden named shadow deputy prime minister

However, a significant number of positions laid vacant following the Conservatives’ defeat last Thursday.

Former prisons minister and chief secretary to the treasury Ed Argar has taken up the position of shadow lord chancellor following Alex Chalk’s election defeat.

Jeremy Wright KC has been appointed as shadow attorney general. Wright previously served as attorney general under David Cameron and Theresa May, but now returns to face Richard Hermer from the other side of the dispatch box.

As MPs took their seats for the first time, the former prime minister gave a measured and gracious speech where he congratulated Sir Keir and Labour for their election win and wished them well moving forward.

3. Lord chancellor sets out plans to address prisons "time bomb"

The new lord chancellor, Shabana Mahmood, moved to address the “ticking time bomb” of prison overcrowding this week in one of her first major acts since joining the government.

On 12 July, Mahmood announced prisoners serving certain sentences will be released once they have completed 40%, rather than 50% of their sentence.

The lord chancellor said the government had no choice but to take the measure given overcrowding in prisons.

This will be a temporary measure and will exclude serious violent offenders serving sentences of four years or more, sexual offences, and those convicted for crimes connected to domestic abuse.

The lord chancellor argued this draws a distinction with the previous government who had also overseen early release of prisoners.

She highlighted that without intervention, courts will be forced to delay sending offenders to prison and the police will be unable to arrest criminals.

We acknowledged this was a pragmatic measure to address the crisis in prisons.

We hope that it will create the space and time for more fundamental solutions to be brought forward that will also address the wider challenges in the justice system, from backlogs in the courts to the collapse of the probation system.

4. Pillars of growth: chancellor gives her first speech

The newly appointed chancellor of the exchequer, Rachel Reeves set out her priorities for the economy in a speech on Monday 8 July.

Reeves confirmed that there will be a budget in the coming months and that she will publish an assessment of the “spending inheritance” that Labour has received from the outgoing Conservative government before the end of July.

It is likely this will show significant challenges in public spending and Reeves will use it to frame a tight budget, which could include tax increases in the autumn.

The speech also set out the new approach to growth that Labour will be focusing on in government. This is based upon three pillars – stability, investment and reform.

In real terms, these pillars will mean:

• respecting the independence of the Bank of England and Office for Budget Responsibility
• unlocking private investment
• reforming the planning system to unleash economic growth

Turning to the impact of these steps, Reeves highlighted a number of blocked planned housing sites that will now move ahead, alongside an end to the ban on onshore wind farms and wider reform of the UK’s planning framework.

She closed saying that the work of a “decade of national renewal has begun”.

Coming up

On Wednesday 17 July, the king will outline the new government's legislative agenda at the state opening of Parliament.

Media outlets have predicted up to 30 pieces of legislation will feature in the speech.

We will be monitoring live on the day and keeping you up to date with all developments from Westminster.