The UK’s Opposition Labour Party leader, Keir Starmer, on Monday undertook a wide reshuffle of his shadow cabinet in preparation for a general election expected next year, with Indian-origin shadow ministers Lisa Nandy and Preet Kaur Gill among those being demoted.

Nandy was shunted out of a plum role as shadow levelling up secretary to be handed an international development ministerial post, a role previously held by Gill — the first British Sikh female MP in the House of Commons.

Nandy, the MP for Wigan and daughter of Dipak Nandy, a Calcutta-born academic well-known for his work in the field of race relations in Britain, moves from being a shadow secretary of state to a shadow minister as the Department for International Development falls within the foreign office remit under the Conservative Party government.

“There is so much potential across our country. But to realise it, we need a government that will spread power and opportunity far more widely,” Nandy tweeted, without directly addressing the reshuffle. “That’s what the next Labour government will do, and it’s what ‘All In’ is about,” she said, referencing the paperback edition of her political book All In.