Harriet Harman has this morning announced a new Shadow Cabinet team before the first meeting of the new parliamentary party due this evening.
She is, of course, entitled to do so according to the rules of the parliamentary party. These were amended four years ago at the request of the then leader, Ed Miliband, to abolish shadow cabinet elections which had long taken place annually when the party was in opposition – a move which the same MPs had rejected only a year earlier.
However, that does not mean that is politically acceptable. The truth is that Ed made that move in order to shore up his own support within the shadow cabinet (something he never really succeeded in doing in practice). In the current situation with an acting leader who is herself not seeking re-election and has not faced an election since she was narrowly elected as deputy to Gordon Brown, this will leave the shadow cabinet with a weak mandate for developing the attack on Tory proposals which will be needed from the moment parliament re-assmbles.
A shadow cabinet election would have provided some sort of mandate, at least on behalf of the parliamentary party. The reality is that it is not only party members that have not had a real voice restored in the party’s internal decision-making — MPs (other than those who owe their positions to the leader) have also lacked proper influence.
Nor has this reshuffle been simply the minimum required to fill gaps left by defeated MPs – pressure was also placed on some members to retire though not always with success. Let us hope that this will serve as yet another lesson that abandoning democratic accountability for the sake of short term political advantage
The members appointed by the acting leader are as follows:
Leader of the Opposition and Acting Leader of the Labour Party
Harriet Harman MP
Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
Chris Leslie MP
Shadow Foreign Secretary
Hilary Benn MP
Shadow Home Secretary
Yvette Cooper MP
Shadow Lord Chancellor, Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
Lord Falconer of Thoroton
Opposition Chief Whip
Rosie Winterton MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Health
Andy Burnham MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills
Chuka Umunna MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Rachel Reeves MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Education
Tristram Hunt MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
Vernon Coaker MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government
Emma Reynolds MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change
Caroline Flint MP
Shadow Leader of the House of Commons and Chair of the National Policy Forum
Angela Eagle MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Transport
Michael Dugher MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Ivan Lewis MP
Shadow Secretary of State for International Development
Mary Creagh MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland
Ian Murray MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Wales
Owen Smith MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Maria Eagle MP
Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office
Lucy Powell MP
Shadow Minister without Portfolio and Deputy Party Chair
Jon Trickett MP
Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities
Gloria De Piero MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Chris Bryant MP
Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Shabana Mahmood MP
Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
Baroness Royall of Blaisdon
Lords Chief Whip
Lord Bassam of Brighton
Also attending Shadow Cabinet:
Shadow Minister for Care and Older People
Liz Kendall MP
Shadow Attorney General
Lord Bach
Interesting period lets wait to see which Progress drone becomes leader.
What a bunch of tossers.
Vile as the Tories indisputably are; I think will be a long long time before anyone votes Labor again.
You maybe right but will they vote labour, depends on where labour now goes and who they pretend to be.
Chris Leslie thinks that Lord Adair Turners advice for Overt Monetary Finance would cause inflation.
With bank debt at 2 trillion causing debt deflation, a slump in output, supermarkets losing profits because of poverty, a slump in output, a massive trade deficit that requires a massive boost of sovereign currency issue, I would say he is in the neoliberal mold, not the Labour one, and probably not that competent.