Starmer's top team split over whether PM should carry out reshuffle next month

Keir Starmer's inner team is split over whether the prime minister should carry out a reshuffle after the May elections in the wake of the Mandelson crisis engulfing this government. 

I've been told by three senior government sources that there are divisions at the very top over how to handle the fallout of the May elections as Downing Street braces for heavy losses and vocal criticism from MPs and councillors.

The Labour Party could lose more than 2,000 council seats in England and control of the Senedd in Wales for the first time since devolution began in 1999.

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Sources tell me that the prime minister's acting chief of staff Vidhya Alakeson and key cabinet figure Darren Jones, secretary to the prime minister, are advising Sir Keir to pause on a reshuffle while political director Amy Richards and chief whip Johnny Reynolds, two Starmer lieutenants trying to manage the party, are pushing for one.

"They are both trying to get his ear," said one figure of Alakeson and Richards. "Keir is undecided."

Those opposed to a reshuffle question whether it would be foolhardy to start trying to move some in the cabinet at such a febrile time.

"You can imagine a scenario where the prime minister calls up a cabinet minister to move them, and they reply they have lost confidence in him, where does he go from there?" said one minister.

Another senior figure told me they "don't think a reshuffle is a good idea right now".

"The PM needs a more public-facing moment about the country and where we are going," they added.

A couple of weeks ago, government figures were heavily briefing that there would be a post election reshuffle as the prime minister sought to demonstrate that he was moving to phase two of his government, with a change of the top team ahead of the King's Speech on 12 May, which will set out the government's legislative agenda for the next session of parliament.

I'm told that the preference of Richards and Reynolds is to put some of the softer left wing of the party back into the top team in order to placate MPs who are casting around for a different leader, with Andy Burnham being talked up even though he is not an MP and therefore couldn't stand if there was a leadership race after the May elections.

However, some MPs believe Mr Burnham would be a better leader to fight Nigel Farage on the right and Zack Polanski on he left.

"He's a clean skin and hasn't been part of Starmer's cabinet," said one MP.

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Names in the frame to be brought back into the cabinet are leading figures on the soft left: Angela Rayner, Lucy Powell and Lou Haigh, while Liz Kendall, the science secretary, and Peter Kyle, the business secretary, are being spoken of by party sources as vulnerable if Sir Keir does decide to change his top team.

The prime minister has had a conversation with Angela Rayner about her return to government when he saw her at a campaign visit arranged in the former deputy leader's constituency.

But I understand that no offer was made or accepted during the course of that conversation.

Sir Keir has publicly said he'd like Rayner to return to cabinet. As for Rayner, she's undecided on whether to go back in, given the current state of play and uncertainty around Sir Keir's future.

(c) Sky News 2026: Starmer's top team split over whether PM should carry out reshuffle next month