Starmer gives more new MPs frontbench jobs

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Three more new MPs have been given Government jobs as Sir Keir Starmer continues to appoint ministers two weeks after becoming Prime Minister.

Hamish Falconer, who was elected MP for Lincoln on July 4, has been made a junior minister in the Foreign Office, while Martin McCluskey and Kate Dearden have been made assistant Government whips.

Mr Falconer has previously served as a diplomat and is the son of Lord Charlie Falconer, who was solicitor general and later lord chancellor under Tony Blair, his former flatmate.

Mr McCluskey, a former adviser to Ed Miliband when he was Labour leader, was elected MP for Inverclyde and Renfrewshire West.

Ms Dearden, a former chair of Labour Students, became MP for Halifax at the General Election and previously worked for the Community Union.

The trio join other new MPs in gaining frontbench roles shortly after entering Parliament, such as veterans minister Al Carns, Cabinet Office minister Georgia Gould and pensions minister Emma Reynolds.

Sir Keir made two other appointments on Thursday, making Baroness Jenny Chapman another junior Foreign Office minister and MP Mary Creagh a minister in the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Baroness Chapman, the former MP for Darlington, chaired Sir Keir’s successful campaign for the Labour leadership in 2020 and later served as his political secretary.

Ms Creagh served in Mr Miliband’s shadow cabinet and later chaired the Commons Environmental Audit Committee before losing her Wakefield seat in 2019.

She returned to Parliament this month as MP for Coventry East.