Newly elected Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer unveiled his new cabinet following a landslide election victory in the United Kingdom (UK).
With three of Britain’s most important political positions going to women, Starmer chosen people from a range of backgrounds for his top positions, The Washington Post reported.
Starmer appointed Rachel Reeves as Britain’s first female chancellor. The position, also known as finance minister, is arguably the second most powerful position in the government after the prime minister.
Taking to social media, Reeves, 45, acknowledged the significance of her appointment and wrote: “To every young girl and woman reading this, let today show that there should be no limits on your ambitions.”
Talking to BBC, Reeves said: “There’s not a huge amount of money there. I know the scale of the challenge I inherit.”
In addition to this, Yvette Cooper was appointed home secretary. Cooper, 55, has served as Labour’s point person on home affairs at two different times.
Earlier, she said that Labour will scrap the Conservative Party’s plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda and would instead introduce a new border security unit.
David Lammy, a 51-year-old lawyer, has been named as foreign secretary. Lammy also served as a minister in the cabinets of Labour prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
“Progressive realism means taking the world as it is, not as we wish it to be,” Lammy said in an interview published by the French journal Le Grand Continent.
He defined this doctrine as putting “realism at the service of progressive goals, like countering climate change, defending democracy, promoting the international rule of law and accelerating towards UN Sustainable Development Goals.”
Speaking to Le Grand Continent, he said, “If I have the privilege to serve I will be the first foreign secretary to be able to trace my lineage back to Africa through the Atlantic slave triangle trade.”
Angela Rayner, 44, was chosen as deputy prime minister. Rayner had been a high-profile member of Labour’s election campaign as deputy leader of the party. She entered Parliament nine years ago after years working within trade unions.
She was also appointed as secretary of state for the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.