Starmer’s high-profile deputy: more than a title
The United Kingdom does not define the job of deputy prime minister in law. It is whatever the prime minister wants it to be. Keir Starmer has chosen to make it public-facing, busy, and tied to delivery. By putting Angela Rayner in the role—alongside her job as Secretary of State for Housing and Local Government—he has turned a traditionally vague title into a test of whether this government can get things done in the open.
This setup blends politics and policy. Rayner is Labour’s deputy leader and a proven campaigner. She now fronts the government’s biggest domestic challenges: building more homes, fixing a clogged planning system, and pushing an employment-rights package promised to voters and trade unions. It is an unusual concentration of responsibility. It is also deliberate.
Why her? Because delivery and trust are the two things this government needs most. Rayner brings authenticity and reach that can cut through noise—she connects with union members, renters, younger voters, and parts of the North and Midlands where Labour can’t afford to drift. Starmer handles the long game and security brief. Rayner does the ground war on domestic change.
There is a balance here. Rachel Reeves runs the Treasury and holds the purse strings. Yvette Cooper at the Home Office and other heavyweights guard their turf. Starmer’s answer is to make Rayner the political point-person for the most visible domestic work, not the owner of every lever. She can sell, coordinate, and pressure, while the departments still deliver.
Delivery, friction, and where power could pinch
Housing is the centrepiece. The government has promised ambitious building targets, new towns, and a planning overhaul that moves faster and argues less. That means asking local councils to take more homes, leaning on combined authorities, and changing rules that have rewarded saying “no” over saying “yes.” It also means loosening restrictions where quality is low and need is high, while protecting genuinely valuable green space—a tightrope that has tripped up governments for a decade.
Rayner’s job is to make this politically survivable. She needs to show that new homes come with schools, transport, and GPs, so communities feel the benefit before they feel the disruption. Expect her to emphasise three things: faster decisions on major projects, clear national targets, and deals with local leaders that link housing to jobs and infrastructure in one package.
Renters are the next test. The previous parliament left reform unfinished. Labour promised to scrap no-fault evictions, raise standards, and bring more predictability to renting without throttling supply. The politics here are tricky: deliver too little and renters notice; push too hard and small landlords exit the market. If Rayner can land a bill that protects tenants and keeps homes available, it will count as a rare win in a space full of disappointment.
Employment rights sit alongside housing. This is personal for Rayner, rooted in her trade union background. Ministers have trailed plans to clamp down on exploitative contracts and strengthen day-one rights at work, while giving firms clarity and time to adapt. Business groups will push for phased implementation and carve-outs. Unions will push back. The tightrope is real, but so is the political payoff if the government can show work feels fairer without scaring off investment.
Making Rayner the public face of all this spreads risk and attention. It also creates new friction points:
- Treasury tension: Planning reform and infrastructure cost money, even if private capital carries the build. The Treasury will ask for proof—value for money, sequencing, regional balance. Expect a steady contest over pace and scale.
- Local resistance: Councillors and MPs like new homes in theory, but not always in their backyards. Rayner’s team will need to offer incentives and certainty: funding for transport, housing that suits local wages, visible timelines.
- Whitehall drift: Planning reform dies if departments fail to move together. Transport, energy, environment, and housing have to align. The centre of government must keep the machine focused—weekly, not yearly.
- Media spotlight: A public deputy PM becomes the story when things stall. If housing completions lag or renters’ reforms get watered down, Rayner takes the first hit. That is part of the design—and part of the risk.
There’s also the constitution-shaped gap. The deputy PM title carries status but not formal authority over other secretaries of state. Influence flows from the prime minister’s backing, control of Cabinet committees, and the ability to move public opinion. Rayner has the second and third in spades; the first depends on Starmer holding the ring when turf wars flare.
So what does success look like? Not ribbon-cuttings tomorrow. The early markers are boring but crucial: a planning policy reset that ends yo-yo guidance; a renters’ bill on the floor of the Commons with a credible timetable; new town proposals with named sites and delivery bodies; visible deals with mayors that tie new housing to transport and skills; and a clear pipeline of projects that investors can trust will actually happen.
Communication will make or break this. Voters want to see shovels in the ground, but they also want honesty about trade-offs. Rayner’s plain-spoken style helps here. If she can explain why a road has to be widened before homes go up, or why a local design code will protect character while allowing growth, sceptical communities may give the government the space it needs.
The politics inside Labour matter too. The party’s left expects movement on workers’ rights and social housing. The business wing wants predictability and a smoother planning process. Starmer’s calculation is that a visible, energetic deputy who can talk to both sides lowers the temperature and keeps the show on the road.
History offers a caution. Nick Clegg used the deputy PM role to drive constitutional reform and ended up defined by tuition fees instead. Dominic Raab had the title but little public reach. Oliver Dowden kept the machine running but rarely fronted change. Rayner’s version is different: more public, more muscular, and more exposed.
There will be moments when she stands in at the despatch box, fronts the morning broadcast round after a tough week, or visits a town where a controversial development is about to break ground. Those are not side gigs; they are the job. If the government is going to sell hard choices, it needs someone who can take the heat and keep moving. That is the bet Starmer has made.
The next year is the window. If planning reform beds in, if renters see real protections, and if at least a few large housing sites move from map to machinery, the structure will look smart. If not, the public deputy PM experiment will be remembered as a big stage with not enough to show. Either way, it puts the country’s most stubborn domestic problems where they belong—out in the open, where voters can see who is trying to fix them.