Jeremy Corbyn has named John McDonnell shadow chancellor and defeated leadership candidate Andy Burnham shadow home secretary.
Hilary Benn will be shadow foreign secretary in the new Labour leader's first shadow cabinet.
Lord
Falconer will be shadow justice secretary, Angela Eagle will be shadow
business secretary and Lewisham MP Heidi Alexander will oversee health.
Chuka Umunna said he was leaving the front bench by "mutual agreement".
Mary Creagh, shadow international development secretary, said she was also returning to the backbenches.
'Hard to stomach'
Ms
Eagle was also announced as shadow first secretary of state and will
deputise for Mr Corbyn at Prime Minister's Questions when David Cameron
is away.
Other confirmed appointments are:
Seema Malhotra as shadow chief secretary to the Treasury
Diane Abbott shadow minister for international development
Shadow Northern Ireland secretary Vernon Coaker
Rosie Winterton to continue as chief whip
Ian Murray to continue as shadow Scottish secretary.
BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg said Mr Corbyn has
achieved part of his first goal as leader - to include people from the
centre of the party, including well-known names.
But
our correspondent added many MPs will find the appointment of Mr
McDonnell - a key ally of Mr Corbyn on the left - "very hard to
stomach".
A Labour source told the BBC the shadow cabinet would
have a majority of women, despite the biggest jobs in the shadow cabinet
all being given to men.
In other developments:
Labour MP Diana Johnson tweeted
in reaction to appointments: "It is so very disappointing - old
fashioned male dominated Labour politics in the top positions in Shadow
Cabinet #notforgirls."
Ivan Lewis tweeted he lost his role as Shadow Northern Ireland secretary, despite telling Mr Corbyn he was willing to remain
Mr Corbyn, MP for Islington North,
spent the morning at an annual "fun day" organised by Camden and
Islington NHS Mental Health Trust
The new Labour leader is set for his
first Commons clash with the government later in a debate over
controversial reforms of trade union laws.
Image copyrightEPAImage caption
Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall both said they would not serve
Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson had urged MPs to back Mr Corbyn.
But
the other leadership candidates Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall, as well
as Ms Creagh, Tristram Hunt, Rachel Reeves, Chris Leslie, Jamie Reed,
Emma Reynolds and Shabana Mahmood said they would not serve in Mr
Corbyn's shadow cabinet.
Ms Cooper will, however, chair a new party taskforce on refugees.
Europe disagreement
Mr
Umunna - who pulled out of the leadership race days after declaring his
candidacy earlier this year - described leaving the shadow cabinet as
one of the most difficult "personal political decisions" he has had to
make.
"Whilst there is much on which Jeremy and I agree, there are
a number of key points of difference on policy which I believe it would
be dishonest to deny exist," he said.
He added he would "find it
difficult to abide by the collective responsibility" of being in the
shadow cabinet - "not least on the European referendum".
Image copyrightPAImage caption
Tom Watson, pictured behind Mr Corbyn, said there was no change of a coup
Mr Corbyn has said he is not content with the EU as
it stands, but wants to stay to fight for a "better Europe". He had
previously refused to rule out campaigning to leave.
Few MPs
backed Mr Corbyn in the leadership contest - which he won with 59% of
the vote - but his deputy Mr Watson told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show
there was "zero chance of a coup".
He did however concede that he
had differences with Mr Corbyn over the leader's desire to scrap the
Trident nuclear deterrent and take the UK out of Nato.
But he
said his message for those refusing to serve in the shadow cabinet was
"there's always someone else that can do a front bench job".
No comments:
Post a Comment