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Andy Burnham has appointed a raft of new Cabinet ministers in a purge of those loyal to his predecessor Sir Keir Starmer.
Among the casualties was David Lammy. The Tottenham MP was replaced as Justice Secretary by Alex Norris but no one was assigned the Deputy Prime Minister title he also held.
Instead, Louise Haigh was handed the job of First Secretary of State - the highest-ranking Cabinet post after the Prime Minister.
It means she will likely to be tasked with standing in for Mr Burnham when he is away for events such as Prime Minister’s Questions.
She was also named Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office.
Louise Haigh arrives in Downing StreetGettyThe Sheffield Heeley MP entered the Commons in 2015 and is a long-time ally of Mr Burnham.
Following Labour’s seismic 2024 general election win, Ms Haigh was appointed Transport Secretary in Sir Keir Starmer’s government.
Aged just 36, she was the youngest-ever female Cabinet minister.
But just four months into the role she was forced to resign when it emerged she had admitted a fraud offence during her twenties.
In 2013 she had told police her work phone had been taken during a mugging but this turned out to be untrue.
Following an investigation by her previous employer, Aviva, she pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation in 2014 and was given a conditional discharge by magistrates.
Ms Haigh insisted that in her mid-20s she had been mugged while on a night out and told police her work phone was missing from her handbag and she thought it had been stolen.
“Whatever the facts of the matter, this issue will inevitably be a distraction from delivering the work of this government,” she told Sir Keir in her resignation letter at the time.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham's cabinet appointmentsPAOn the backbenches she proved to be a thorn in the side of the then-PM.
It was Ms Haigh who was at the heart of welfare cuts rebellion, organising MPs to threaten to vote against the controversial reforms and forcing an embarrassing climbdown by Sir Keir’s government.
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A leading figure on the "soft left" of Labour, she often spoke out against her party’s more rightwing proposals.
As Sir Keir began to face increasing pressure over his leadership, Ms Haigh emerged as one of the key drivers behind Mr Burnham and helped run his campaign for the Makerfield by-election.
She raised eyebrows earlier this month when she revealed that the former Manchester mayor and his supporters had been plotting to take over at No10 for at least a year.
Following Mr Burnham’s win in Makerfield, she told the BBC: “I don't think I am breaking any state secrets to say Andy has been thinking and has had his ambition, his ambitions have been clear for some time.”
“Of course he’s run for leader twice before, so this is hopefully, touch wood, third time, third-time lucky.
“So he’s, you know, he’s been thinking about this and certainly planning for this, for this moment, for at least a year.”
Prime Minister Andy Burnham holds his first Cabinet meetingGettyIn two essays published before the Mackerfield campaign began, Ms Haigh hinted at that how he could radically reshape British politics.
This included significantly loosening Labour's debt rules and a call to "re-examine the mandate" of the Bank of England with more focus on growth.
She supported controversial policies that Mr Burnham has advocated for in the past, including a new tax on the value of land to replace stamp duty.
"The status quo is not sustainable. We cannot afford to wait any longer before we change the system we inherited,” she wrote.