Your morning briefing: What you should know for Monday, May 10

Rachel Reeves made shadow chancellor as Sir Keir swings axe in reshuffle

Sir Keir Starmer has sacked Anneliese Dodds and chief whip Nick Brown as part of a drastic overhaul following Labour’s disastrous local election results.

Rachel Reeves has been promoted to shadow chancellor as part of Sir Keir’s reshuffle of his top team, with former incumbent Anneliese Dodds relegated to party chairman.

Deputy leader Angela Rayner, fired as party chairman and elections co-ordinator on Saturday following Labour’s shock Hartlepool by-election defeat, will take Ms Reeves’ former post as shadow chancellor to the Duchy of Lancaster.

Nick Brown has been replaced as shadow chief whip by Alan Campbell, while Thangam Debbonaire has been moved to shadow Commons leader.

Sir Keir said: “The Labour Party must be the party that embraces the demand for change across our country.

“That will require bold ideas and a relentless focus on the priorities of the British people.”

Whale freed after becoming stranded along River Thames

A Minke whale has been freed after it became stranded in south-west London on Sunday evening.

Hundreds gathered at Richmond Lock and Weir after the whale, believed to be between three to four metres long, became stuck on the lock’s boat rollers about 7.30pm.

The whale would have had to swim through central London to end up in Richmond.

Videos showed it being hosed down by a man believed to be a Port of London Authority (PLA) staff member, while a vet performed a check-up at the river’s edge, before the Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI) arrived at the scene to the cheers of onlookers around 9pm.

Fire crews were also at the scene, along with the British Divers Marine Life Rescue service.

Footage posted from the scene showed the whale finally being freed about 1am.

Police hunt mother after body of newborn baby found in canal

Police are appealing for a mother to get medical help after her newborn baby was found dead in the Grand Union Canal.

Police were called to the stretch of water Old Oak Lane, in Willesden to the grim discovery at 1.20pm.

Cordons remain in place along the canal towpath which is a popular cycling route.

A worker at a canalside restaurant said: “The police and fireman were here but I can’t say anything more.”

One eyewitness told the Mail Online police were having to “turn lots of people away’”

Man stabbed and eight arrests in mass knife brawl inside Selfridges

Police have made eight arrests after a man was stabbed when a brawl broke out at Selfridges’ flagship store in central London.

Footage of the incident posted on Twitter shows a man wielding a knife in front of shocked shoppers at the department store on Oxford Street.

Another man threw a mannequin onto the floor before two men started fighting.

The clip then shows the group making their way to another part of the store as security guards followed.

A spokesperson from the Met Police said the injured man had been stabbed in the leg and he is not in serious condition.

He has since been arrested on suspicion of affray and is being held in custody.

Seven more people have been arrested on suspicion of GBH including a 21-year-old man; a 20-year-old man; an 18-year-old man; a 20-year-old man; a 22-year-old man; a 26-year-old man and a 20-year-old woman.