Politics Home Article | Keir Starmer Appoints Gordon Brown And Harriet Harman Into New Roles

Former prime minister Gordon Brown visited Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Downing Street on Saturday morning (Alamy)

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Starmer has appointed Brown as special envoy on global finance, with the former prime minister having visited Downing Street on Saturday morning. 

Harman, who was deputy leader of the Labour Party between 2007 and 2015 and now sits in the House of Lords, has been appointed as Starmer’s adviser on women and girls.

The appointments come as Starmer faces widespread criticism from within his own party, after Labour was dealt heavy losses in local council and devolved parliamentary elections across the UK this week. 

Labour has lost more than 1,100 English council seats, including in its heartlands across northern England and the Midlands, has lost power in Wales for the first time since the devolved administration was established, and failed to win power from the SNP in Scotland.

With Reform UK picking up more than 1,400 seats on local councils and the Green Party achieving the second largest national vote share after Reform, many Labour MPs have blamed Starmer and the party leadership for the results. More than 20 backbench Labour MPs have called on Starmer to resign or suggested that he cannot lead the party and government into the next set of elections next year.

Brown will reportedly advise the government on how global finance cooperation can help to boost the UK’s security and resilience, particularly looking at how international finance partnerships can support defence and security-related investment.

This will form part of the Labour government’s push to move closer to Europe.

Harman will work with ministers to bring in measures to tackle violence against women and girls, and increase women’s representation in politics and public life. The part-time role will be unpaid.

Brown has been supportive of Starmer in recent months. In February, he told the BBC in the wake of further revelations about the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador that Starmer was “a man of integrity” who “wants to do the right things”.

“Perhaps he’s been too slow to do the right things, but he must do the right things now,” he said. 

“And let’s judge what he does on what happens in the next few months, when he tries – and I believe [he] will try – to clean up the system.”

Harman, on the other hand, has been critical of the Prime Minister’s handling of the Mandelson scandal in recent months, warning that it could “finish him off”.

She has, however, said that she believes Starmer should continue as Prime Minister as long as changes are made to how the government is being run.

Speaking on Sky News’ Electoral Dysfunction podcast on Friday, Harman said: “There needs to be a consensus built and led by Keir Starmer about what the government is going to do differently, because more of the same is not acceptable.

“The country is entitled to a government that actually delivers on its manifesto, but more than that, they’re entitled to a government and a prime minister who gives them a sense of direction of where the country’s going and hope for the future.

“So it’s not just about delivering the nuts and bolts, it’s about a narrative, it’s about telling the story where people can all feel the country’s getting better.”