Who to promote in a Labour shadow cabinet reshuffle?

If there is to be a Labour government, it will be in Keir Starmer’s image, says Sean O’Grady

The next Labour government will be very much in Keir Starmer’s image (PA)

Here’s a new year quiz. Can you name the shadow secretary of state for Defra; International Development (technically shadow minister); Northern Ireland; Transport; International Trade?

The answers are: Jim McMahon; Preet Kaur Gill; Peter Kyle; Louise Haigh; Nick Thomas-Symonds. They’ve been picked because they’ve been named in the media alongside apparently well-sourced reports about a shadow cabinet reshuffle. Apparently Keir Starmer isn’t content with the way all of his shadow front bench are performing, particularly in the lower ranks – though the names here haven’t been marked out, it’s merely informed speculation.

The good news for Starmer and Labour is that the senior and high-profile members of the team are more than holding their own. Rachel Reeves is probably the best: smart, economically literate and prudent with it. She has been gifted with the car-crash that was Kwasi Kwarteng’s chancellorship, and the scandal of the PPE contracts, but, still, she seems to have managed to deflect the usual attacks on Labour profligacy.