TORFAEN MP Nick Thomas-Symonds has survived a Labour Party shadow cabinet reshuffle.

Mr Thomas-Symonds has retained his role as shadow home secretary in Sir Keir Starmer's revamp of his top team, which follows Labour's poor performance in local elections in England.

The party lost the previously safe seat of Hartlepool in a Parliamentary by-election last week, as lost control of a number of councils in the north of England. But the picture was very different in Wales, where Welsh Labour did far better than predicted in the Senedd Elections, winning 30 seats -one seat of an overall majority, meaning Mark Drakeford will continue as first minister.

The reshuffle saw shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds sacked, with Rachel Reeves promoted in her place. Ms Dodds was made party chairman after deputy leader Angela Rayner was sacked as party chairman and elections co-ordinator, and will take Ms Reeves’ former post as shadow chancellor to the Duchy of Lancaster.

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Birmingham Ladywood MP Shabana Mahmood comes in as national campaign co-ordinator.

Ms Rayner has also been given other responsibilities in the reshuffle, with Labour confirming she will be shadow first secretary of state, while also having a “future of work” brief.

Taking to Twitter, Ms Rayner said she would “work tirelessly to reform our party” in order to “show that the Labour Party speaks for the working class”.

As part of the firing and hiring, Nick Brown has been replaced as shadow chief whip by Alan Campbell, while Thangam Debbonaire has been moved to shadow Commons leader.

The decision to dismiss Mr Brown, who had served in government as Gordon Brown’s chief whip before taking the shadow equivalent job under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, was criticised by a Labour grandee.

Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell tweeted: “Sacking Nick Brown, one of the most experienced and tactically astute chief whips the party has ever had, is inept in the extreme.

“This looks like (Lord) Mandelson’s revenge.”

Ms Debbonaire replaces Valerie Vaz, who was ousted from the shadow cabinet as part of the shake-up, with Lucy Powell taking the shadow housing secretary post.

Lisa Nandy, whose role as shadow to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab was rumoured to be under threat, has remained in position.

In fact, the majority of the personnel in the top positions in the shadow cabinet remained the same during Sir Keir’s first reshuffle since being elected leader in April 2020.

The Opposition leader said the election results in Scotland and Wales, along with the host of mayoral wins in England during the Super Thursday elections, gave the party “optimism and inspiration for the future”.

But he said Labour would “require bold ideas and a relentless focus on the priorities of the British people” to regain power once again.

“The challenge for us now is to build upon these successes and learn from the places we lost,” Sir Keir said.

“I look forward to working with our refreshed and renewed team to take on that challenge, deliver that change and build the ambitious programme that will deliver the next Labour government.”

Despite the shifts at the top, former Labour leader Mr Corbyn, who is currently suspended from the party, warned that “reshuffles or cosmetic tweaks” were unlikely to bring voters back.

Writing in The Independent, Mr Corbyn called for a return of policies from Labour’s 2017 manifesto, which included nationalisation of the Royal Mail and free university tuition.

“It is new ideas from across our movement – not reshuffles or cosmetic tweaks – that will bring hope back,” said the Islington North MP.

Jon Trickett MP, a former party campaign co-ordinator and prominent left-wing voice, said a leadership challenge should not be ruled out following last week’s showing at the polls.

As part of his reaction to the elections outcome, Sir Keir has also hired pollster Deborah Mattinson as director of strategy.

Ms Mattinson previously advised former Labour leaders Tony Blair and Mr Brown and wrote a book about why the party lost seats in the so-called “red wall” at the 2019 general election.

She comes in after Labour received a drubbing in some parts of the country, losing control of a host of councils and suffering defeat at the hands of Boris Johnson’s Conservatives in Hartlepool, with the North East constituency electing a Tory MP for the first time since 1959.

The party lost control of Durham council for the first time in a century, saw its leader deposed by the Greens in Sheffield and also witnessed heavy defeats in Rotherham and Sunderland at local authority level.

But there were successes elsewhere, with the party dominating in the mayoral elections, claiming 11 of the 14 posts contested in cities and metropolitan regions across England.

Labour secured shock victories in the West of England and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough while banking comfortable wins in Greater Manchester and Liverpool City Region, and holding onto London and Bristol.

On Sunday, Labour MP and former Coronation Street actor Tracy Brabin was elected the first West Yorkshire mayor.

However, the result sets up another potentially difficult Westminster by-election for the party in the wake of the Hartlepool loss, as Labour face another tough test to hang onto Ms Brabin’s Batley and Spen constituency in its former post-industrial heartlands.

The full list for the Labour shadow cabinet reshuffle:

  • Rachel Reeves has replaced Anneliese Dodds as shadow chancellor.
  • Anneliese Dodds has replaced Angela Rayner as the party chair.
  • Alan Campbell has replaced Nick Brown as shadow chief whip.
  • Lucy Powell has replaced Thangam Debbonaire as shadow housing secretary.
  • Thangam Debbonaire has replaced Valerie Vaz as shadow leader of the House of Commons.
  • Wes Streeting’s role as shadow minister for schools has been changed to child poverty secretary.
  • Angela Rayner, who is deputy leader of the Labour party, has become shadow first secretary, shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (taking the role from Rachel Reeves) and shadow secretary for the future of work.

The following shadow ministers have kept their posts:

  • Lisa Nandy – shadow foreign secretary
  • Nick Thomas-Symonds – shadow home secretary
  • David Lammy – shadow justice secretary
  • John Healey – shadow defence secretary
  • Jonathan Ashworth – shadow health and social care secretary
  • Ed Miliband – shadow business, energy and industrial strategy secretary
  • Emily Thornberry – shadow international trade secretary
  • Jonathan Reynolds – shadow work and pensions secretary
  • Kate Green – shadow education secretary
  • Jo Stevens – shadow digital, culture, media and sport secretary
  • Bridget Phillipson – shadow chief secretary to the Treasury
  • Luke Pollard – shadow environment, food and rural affairs secretary
  • Steve Reed – shadow communities and local government secretary
  • Jim McMahon – shadow transport secretary
  • Preet Kaur Gill – shadow international development secretary
  • Louise Haigh – shadow Northern Ireland secretary
  • Ian Murray – shadow Scotland secretary
  • Nia Griffith – shadow Wales secretary
  • Marsha de Cordova – shadow women and equalities secretary
  • Lord Falconer – shadow attorney general
  • Baroness Angela Smith – shadow leader of the House of Lords
  • Lord McAvoy – Lords’ Opposition chief Whip
  • Rosena Allin-Khan – shadow minister for mental health
  • Cat Smith – shadow minister for young people and democracy
  • Andy McDonald – shadow employment rights and protections secretary