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Sir Chris Bryant, has joined Sir Keir Starmer’s frontbench as the Labour leader continued his reshuffle – with the Labour leader also extending an olive branch to the left by appointing a Jeremy Corbyn ally.
Sir Chris – an outspoken critic of the Conservative Government and head of the Parliamentary sleaze watchdog as chair of the Commons Standards Committee – was appointed to the Labour shadow culture team.
Sir Keir also plucked figures out of the left-wing cohort in his party and promoted Andrew Gwynne – a one-time Corbyn ally.
Mr Gwynne ran Labour’s national election campaign under Mr Corbyn and worked with Andy Burnham when he was running to become Mayor of Greater Manchester.
He resigned when Sir Keir was elected to the leadership – but was brought back into the shadow cabinet as a junior minister in 2021.
The MP for Denton and Reddish has now been promoted from Shadow Public Health Minister to Shadow Minister for Social Care.
He said he was “delighted” by the appointment, adding: “The next Labour Government will be mission driven in building a care system fit for the future, one that meets the needs of older and disabled people and their families.”
Sir Keir has appointed senior MP Mr Bryant, who was in Gordon Brown’s government, as Shadow Minister for Creative Industries and Digital on Wednesday.
It is understood Sir Chris is in the process of resigning from his prominent position as chairman of the Standards Committee, which scrutinises the behaviour of MPs.
Responding to the appointment, Sir Chris said: “Creativity drives the UK’s potential. It creates jobs. It enlivens our imagination. We need to cherish and celebrate it and make it available to all.”
The MP for Rhondda’s return to the front bench is another example of Sir Keir bringing in those with experience from Labour’s last time in government.
In Mr Brown’s administration, Sir Chris served in the Foreign Office, including as Europe minister, having been deputy Commons leader.
He also spent nine months as shadow Commons leader under Mr Corbyn, but quit as part of a wave of resignations from the shadow cabinet, saying he feared the then-leader would “go down in history as the man who broke the Labour Party”.
Preet Gill has also been moved from Shadow International Development Minister to cover primary care.
Sir Keir’s long-awaited reshuffle – which kicked off on Monday – saw him reward loyalist campaigners with promotions ahead of the election push, bringing more Blairites into the fold and demoting “soft left” figures.
The biggest move was appointing his deputy Angela Rayner to cover levelling-up brief and housing – as well as formally naming her Shadow Deputy Prime Minister in a nod to her elected status.
Lisa Nandy suffered a blow after being demoted from Shadow Levelling Up Secretary to covering the international development brief, which is not shadowing its own government department.
The reshuffle saw a shake up of middle-ranking posts, but many senior roles in the shadow Cabinet remained untouched.