Starmer installs apolitical ministers in a “government of all talents” | Keir Starmer

Keir Starmer called together senior ministers in the new Labour government on Saturday evening as he announced new additions to his team.

Former cabinet minister Douglas Alexander, who returned as an MP in the election, was appointed trade minister, while Jacqui Smith, who served as home secretary under Gordon Brown, was given a peerage and appointed education minister.

Starmer’s willingness to bring back figures with government experience is certain to continue, with suggestions that former health secretary Alan Milburn will be given a role in driving forward NHS reforms.

This comes after Starmer demonstrated his willingness to bring in outside expertise into his ministerial ranks, in an apparent return to Gordon Brown’s attempt to build a “government of all talents”.

He has appointed former chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance as science minister, rehabilitation campaigner and businessman James Timpson as prisons minister and Richard Hermer, an international law expert, as his attorney general.

Hermer’s appointment, welcomed by senior legal figures, comes at a time when Starmer is likely to need regular advice on the Gaza conflict. Hermer was among a group of Jewish lawyers, including former UK Supreme Court president Lord Neuberger, who wrote a letter warning that international law must guide Israel’s response to the Hamas attack on 7 October.

The letter said Hamas’s actions were “not simply a moral outrage but a flagrant violation of all norms of international law.”

The document states that Israel has a clear right under international law to respond in self-defense and a duty to defend its citizens, but adds: “To be clear, collective punishment is prohibited by the laws of war. International law also requires combatants to ensure minimal destruction of civilian life and infrastructure.”

Adam Wagner, a human rights lawyer who signed the letter along with Hermer, described him as “an international law expert (who) has lived and breathed human rights law since the Human Rights Act came into being.”

Sir Jonathan Jones, a former Treasury solicitor and permanent secretary of the government’s legal department, described him as an “excellent appointment”.

He said: “Richard Hermer is a very experienced congressman with a great reputation. I have no doubt that he will take very seriously the vital role of the attorney general in upholding the rule of law in government.”

However, Hermer’s arrival has meant that Emily Thornberry, the Labour MP from London who had held the post in opposition, has been sidelined.

Starmer’s allies believe appointments to a “government of all talents”, or “goats”, will demonstrate the prime minister intends to lead in a non-ideological way.

Gordon Brown made a series of external ministerial appointments when he became prime minister in 2007.

They included former Admiral Lord West, former UN Under-Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown, former CBI Director-General Digby Jones and surgeon Ara Darzi.

The appointments sparked some criticism after some of the foreign ministers did not last long in their posts. Lord Jones later complained that being a junior minister had been “one of the most dehumanising and depersonalising experiences a human being can have”.

Others caused political embarrassment for the government. However, Lord Darzi remained in office as health minister for two years while his review of the National Health Service won widespread support.

In other appointments announced on Saturday, Ellie Reeves, Rachel Reeves’ sister, was appointed as a Cabinet minister, replacing Anneliese Dodds as party chair.

Dan Jarvis has been appointed as Home Secretary, and Jim McMahon and Matthew Pennycook have been appointed as Ministers for the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Meanwhile, Douglas Alexander has been appointed as Trade Minister.