Preet Kaur Gill, Vaz in Labour’s new shadow cabinet in the UK

After appointing Lisa Nandy as the shadow foreign secretary, Labour leader Keir Starmer on Monday appointed Preet Kaur Gill and Valerie Vaz among others in his team,

After appointing Lisa Nandy as the shadow foreign secretary, Labour leader Keir Starmer on Monday appointed Preet Kaur Gill and Valerie Vaz among others in his team, increasing the overall number of Indian-origin MPs in the shadow cabinet.

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Gill, MP from Birmingham Edgbaston, retains the shadow international development portfolio, while Vaz, MP from Walsall South, also retains in her role as shadow leader of the House of Commons. Both were members of former party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s team.

Starmer said: “I’m proud to have appointed a shadow cabinet that showcases the breadth, depth and talents of the Labour Party. This is a new team that will be relentlessly focused on acting in the national interest to respond to the coronavirus pandemic and rebuilding Labour so that it can win the next election.”

According to parliamentary rules, the shadow cabinet is the team of senior spokespeople chosen by the leader of the opposition to mirror the cabinet in government. Each member of the shadow cabinet is appointed to lead on a specific policy area for their party and to question and challenge their counterpart in the cabinet. In this way, the official opposition seeks to present itself as an alternative government-in-waiting, the rules state. Starmer, who promised to be a rallying figure in the party, defeated Nandy and Rebecca Long-Bailey in the leadership election that was triggered after Corbyn stepped down following the party’s fourth election loss in a row in December.