Starmer installs non-political ministers in ‘government of all the talents’

Covid adviser Patrick Vallance and businessman James Timpson among appointments from outside Westminster

Keir Starmer has signalled he will appoint more non-political experts as ministers in his new administration, in an apparent return to Gordon Brown's attempt to build a government of all the talents".

The new prime minister has already made some surprise appointments from outside Westminster, including former chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance as science minister, rehabilitation campaigner and businessman James Timpson as his prisons minister and Richard Hermer KC, an expert on international law, as his attorney general.