Lammy appointment follows resignation of left-wing champion Angela Rayner, who stepped down over a tax scandal.

United Kingdom foreign minister David Lammy has been appointed as the country’s new deputy prime minister, replacing Angela Rayner after she resigned amid a tax scandal.

Rayner’s resignation on Friday for breaching ministerial code after underpaying tax on her flat prompted a major cabinet reshuffle, with Lammy’s elevation to deputy prime minister among a raft of new appointments.

The departure of Rayner – a figure viewed by many as a ballast of the left and a potential successor to Prime Minister Keir Starmer – has created turmoil in the Labour Party, which now trails hard-right firebrand Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party in national polls.

In a letter to Starmer on Friday, Rayner conceded she “did not meet the highest standards” and would resign from her roles as housing minister and deputy leader of Labour.

“I deeply regret my decision to not seek additional specialist tax advice,” she said, having last week admitted to underpaying a surcharge on the flat. She said she took “full responsibility for this error”.

Starmer, whose government has endured a series of crises since taking power in July 2024, replied that he was “very sad” to lose her from government, but added: “You will remain a major figure in our party.”

“In losing her, Keir Starmer loses perhaps the closest link the Labour Party has to its working-class roots,” reported Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull from Birmingham in the UK.

Starmer’s reshuffle also saw Yvette Cooper moved from the interior ministry to replace Lammy as foreign secretary, the prime minister’s office said. Shabana Mahmood, who was justice secretary, replaces Cooper as home secretary; while Lammy now takes on the role of justice secretary in addition to his position as deputy prime minister.

House of Commons leader Lucy Powell and Scotland secretary Ian Murray confirmed in statements on Friday that they were leaving government, following earlier reports they had been fired.

In a post on X, Powell said Starmer had told her he intended to replace her with a new Commons leader.

“This has not been an easy time for the government. People want to see change and improvements to their difficult lives,” Powell said.

A Statement from me: pic.twitter.com/5NmhJeKDRV

— Lucy Powell MP (@LucyMPowell) September 5, 2025

‘Complexity’ in Rayner tax scandal

Rayner disclosed on Wednesday that she had underpaid so-called stamp duty on a seaside flat in southern England following days of reports suggesting that she had saved 40,000 pounds ($53,000) by removing her name from the deeds of another property.

After looking into the case, ethics chief Laurie Magnus said the rules “entailed a considerable degree of complexity” and recognised that Rayner had twice been advised that the lower rate of stamp duty was applicable.

That advice, however, was qualified by the admission that it did not constitute expert tax advice.

Rayner’s failure to seek further guidance meant she “cannot be considered to have met the highest possible standards of proper conduct”, said Magnus.

Rayner, who became a single mother at the age of 16 after growing up in poverty, worked her way up from the shop floor as a union representative, forging a lifelong involvement with the Labour Party.

Often tipped to become Labour leader one day, she has been a top target for political attacks by the Conservatives and right-wing media.

The Commission’s multibilllion-euro fine falls short of the €4.34 billion fine the EU executive slapped on Google in 2018 over abuse of dominance related to Android mobile devices, but is higher than the €2.42 billion fine the firm faced for favoring its own comparison-shopping service in 2017.

The Commission’s decision comes as a parallel case before the U.S. courts will soon come to trial.

In April, a U.S. federal judge found that Google had illegally maintained a monopoly in display search advertising, and a trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 22.

The U.S. government is seeking a divestment of Google’s assets in that trial.

In a statement, Google’s Global Head of Regulatory Affairs Lee-Anne Mulholland said that the firm will appeal the Commission’s decision.

“It imposes an unjustified fine and requires changes that will hurt thousands of European businesses by making it harder for them to make money,” said Mulholland.

This story has been updated.

A 2019 mission in North Korea, which intended to have Navy SEALs plant an electronic device to intercept communications of the country’s leader Kim Jong Un, resulted in an unsuccessful operation that left unarmed North Koreans dead, according to a report from the New York Times on Friday.

The mission, which took place during President Donald Trump’s first term, required the president’s direct approval, the Times reports, and came amid high-level nuclear talks between the US and North Korea.

The White House and Pentagon declined to comment. CNN has also reached out to the ​US Special Operations Command and North Korea’s permanent mission to the United Nations in New York for comment on the report.

According to the Times, SEAL Team Six’s Red Squadron rehearsed for months for a plan that would require the Navy to slip a nuclear-powered submarine into North Korean waters, alongside two mini-subs of SEALs who would motor along the shore before swimming to the target to install the electronic device.

The SEAL Team Six, which is a secretive US military unit formed in 1980, has worked on a range of secret, dangerous and high-risk missions, including carrying out the operation that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011.

The Times reports when a North Korean boat, which evidence later suggested were two or three North Korean civilians diving for shellfish, approached in the water during the operation, the SEALs opened fire and killed them. The report also states the Trump administration did not notify key members of Congress.

The relationship between the United States and North Korea, a country that is highly isolated, has been rocky over the years. Trump issued an ultimatum to North Korea in 2017 to not make any more threats against the US or they will “face fire and fury like the world has never seen.” His warning came as US intelligence analysts assessed North Korea had produced a miniaturized nuclear warhead at the time.

Kim and Trump would go on to exchange a series of flatteries and letters in 2018 and 2019 after the significant tensions in 2017. They then would participate in a series of unprecedented summits in 2018 with fulsome declarations of a new friendship but vague pledges of nuclear disarmament.

In 2019, Trump would make history as the first sitting US leader to set foot in the hermit kingdom, when he shook hands with Kim and took 20 steps into North Korea. Biden’s administration, meanwhile, would take a different strategy, CNN reported at the time, focused on shows of strength and unity with South Korea as well as incremental progress toward denuclearization.

This story has been updated with additional information.