Lisa Nandy named culture secretary in Keir Starmer's first cabinet

While Labour was in opposition, Lisa Nandy appeared to be on an uninterrupted downwards trajectory.

Having started out in Keir Starmer’s top team as shadow foreign secretary – counterpart to one of the four great offices of state – she was successively demoted until being handed the junior ministerial brief for international development.

Now the party is in government, things are looking up for the Wigan MP who was once a party leadership contender. In his first round of appointments Starmer has today made Nandy culture secretary, responsible for a sprawling portfolio of arts, media and sport.

The role was made vacant after Thangam Debbonaire, who had held the shadow position, lost her Bristol Central seat to Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer.

Culture may not be considered one of the most senior positions in the cabinet, but it’s one of the most fun.

Nandy takes on the brief at a busy time, with sporting events including Wimbledon, the Euros and the Olympics all taking place in the next few days.

That means Nandy could soon rival her boss for gifts of hospitality she will have to declare, if not quite yet for visibility. Nandy has been a trenchant campaigner for levelling up (another former brief) and for the need to invest in towns as distinct from cities.

She has been less forthcoming on the new patch. But unsurprisingly, her appointment will mark a break with the Conservatives: she has previously attacked the Tories for their “anti-media and anti-BBC feeling”.