Keir Starmer has appointed two new ministers to the Department for Health and Social Care and the Cabinet Office, after former health minister Ashley Dalton and former Cabinet minister Josh Simons both resigned from the government.
Dalton left the government on health grounds, while Simons stepped down following allegations that he was involved in a smear campaign against journalists by Labour Together. (He was cleared by the Prime Minister’s independent adviser on ministerial standards, Laurie Magnus, of breaching of the ministerial code.)
Sharon Hodgson, the MP for Washington and Gateshead, has been appointed parliamentary under-secretary of state in the Department for Health and Social Care. James Frith, the MP for Bury North, has been appointed parliamentary under-secretary of state in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and parliamentary secretary in the Cabinet Office. Ruth Anderson, a whip in the House of Lords, has also been appointed parliamentary secretary in the Cabinet office.
Simons announced he would be stepping down from his roles in DSIT and the Cabinet Office last week. In his letter of resignation, he said he was resigning as he had become a “distraction” from the work of government. Widely seen as a rising star of the 2024 intake, while in post Simons was responsible for overseeing the introduction of digital ID, a policy which caused difficulties for the government before it U-turned on the plans on 13 January.
Frith, who was first elected in 2017, was appointed in 2018 as the parliamentary private secretary to Defence Secretary John Healey (Healey was then in the shadow housing brief). He lost his seat in the 2019 general election to Conservative MP James Daly, but regained it in 2024. Since returning to parliament, Frith has been a member of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee.
Dalton – who introduced the government’s national cancer plan – announced she would be stepping down while she continues to receive oral chemotherapy, in order to focus on her constituency. She was diagnosed with incurable metastatic breast cancer in 2025. In her letter of resignation Dalton said: “I return to the backbenches, committed to being a powerful voice in Westminster for my constituents.” Hodgson, who will replace Dalton in the Department for Health, was first elected in 2004. She was Starmer’s parliamentary private secretary between 2021 and 2023.
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