Starmer announces two Blair and Brown figures as junior ministers.

Getty ImagesTwo former cabinet ministers who had served under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, Jacqui Smith of Home Secretary status will join Lords as higher education minister, according to Downing Street reports. Jim McMahon and Matthew Pennycook, two veterans of Sir Keir’s shadow government, have become ministers within the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Mr Pennycook described his appointment as a true privilege: he called it an honourable momentous milestone on his path toward retirement from politics. Reducing housing deficit and expanding economic growth were integral to national renewal, said Mr Hunt. Ms Smith – not an MP but instead an independent member – will receive a life peerage in order to return to government as education minister, an office she held before Tony Blair took power 25 years earlier. She went on to hold multiple ministerial roles before being named first female home secretary. She resigned due to expenses scandals in 2009, which was found by the Standards Commissioner as violating Commons rules by designating her sister’s London house as her main residence while continuing to claim expenses on both Redditch properties where she resided. Ms. Smith admitted mistakenly claiming expenses for two pornographic movies watched by her husband while she was absent.