Keir Starmer has reshuffled his cabinet following the resignation of deputy leader Angela Rayner. For the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the shake-up has delivered a new secretary. What will this mean for wildlife?
Rayner stepped down from her roles as deputy prime minister, deputy Labour leader, and housing secretary, on 5 September. The politician’s resignation came after revelations that she paid too little tax when purchasing a property. The prime minister’s ethics advisor concluded that Rayner breached the ministerial code in the way she handled the affair.
Starmer took the opportunity of Rayner’s exit to reshuffle his cabinet. He moved DEFRA secretary Steve Reed to the position of housing secretary and sacked farming minister Daniel Zeichner. In their place will be Emma Reynolds as DEFRA secretary and Angela Eagle as farming minister (who generally voted against the badger cull).
So, who is Reynolds, the politician now tasked with steering the DEFRA ship?
Lobbying background
For Reynolds, being the environment secretary is a big step up. She was previously the economic secretary to the Treasury, a junior minister role. Prior to that position, she was a parliamentary secretary to the Treasury and a parliamentary under-secretary for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
Reynolds is currently the MP for Wycombe, having been elected in 2024. This is not her first stint in parliament though as she was MP for Wolverhampton North East from 2010 to 2019.
Reynolds’ role as economic secretary to the Treasury related to financial services, which is a sector she is very familiar with. Prior to the 2024 election, Reynolds worked as managing director of public affairs, policy and research for the firm TheCityUK, which lobbies for banks and other financial services businesses. She worked in lobbying prior to entering parliament in 2010 too, with the Brussels-based group Small Business Europe, according to Money Marketing.
Her prior appointments to the DWP and the Treasury raised some eyebrows, due to the links between her lobbying work and these public sector roles. As Open Democracy pointed out in July 2024, a year before Reynolds was made pensions minister (the parliamentary-undersecretary role at the DWP), she was “actively involved in lobbying the Labour Party about pensions on behalf of the financial sector.”
Meanwhile, when Reynolds was appointed economic secretary in January this year, the Guardian asked Downing Street whether she would recuse herself from policy decisions that she had previously pressed the government on in her lobbying work. At the time, Starmer’s spokesperson insisted the process for ministerial appointments would be followed in the “usual way” and told the publication that Reynolds “brings a wealth of experience to the role.”
Wildlife absent
The same cannot be said of Reynolds’ experience in environmental matters. It appears her work in lobbying did involve some focus on climate change, in relation to the financial sector’s role in global action to tackle the emergency. But the environment and wildlife have certainly not been a key focus for her in or outside of parliament.
As Edie highlighted, she has never held a governmental position that directly relates to the environment, climate change, or rural affairs. However, this does not preclude her from making contributions in parliamentary discussions about these issues.
But according to Hansard’s records on members’ contributions, although Reynolds has talked some about climate in parliamentary debates, she has never once mentioned wildlife in these sessions during her approximately 10 years as a politician.
Meanwhile, her MP website contains just a few mentions on environmental subjects, such as highlighting Reynolds meeting with local environmental groups and her support for Labour’s plans to tackle fly-tipping and water pollution.
When it comes to deeds not words, Reynolds has a mixed record. TheyWorkForYou lists her voting record on environmental issues. While the new DEFRA secretary has generally voted for measures aimed at tackling climate change, she also generally voted for the nature-killing HS2 high speed rail.
Given Reynold’s lack of experience, action, and comments on matters concerning Nature, what her appointment as DEFRA secretary will mean for wildlife is, frankly, anyone’s guess.
Of her new role, Reynolds says that she “looks forward to building on the excellent work of Reed – cleaning up our rivers, backing British farming and ensuring nature’s recovery.”
But considering Reynolds’ business-, money- and economic growth-focused background experience and her distinct lack of attention to wildlife to date, Protect the Wild is far from assured at this stage that the politician has what it takes to ensure Nature’s recovery.
- Emma Reynolds MP image Roger Harris Photography