Jeremy Corbyn has begun a shadow cabinet reshuffle. Follow the details here.
IN:
- Nick Brown has been appointed as Winterton’s successor. A former Gordon Brown loyalist, the MP for Newcastle upon Tyne East will be responsible for instilling discipline in the increasingly divided party. On accepting the role, Brown said he hoped to ‘play a constructive role in providing the strongest possible opposition to this Tory government’.
- Shami Chakrabarti has been appointed to the post of shadow attorney general. The newly appointed peer says ‘it is an enormous privilege to take up the post of Shadow Attorney General in Jeremy Corbyn’s new team. I hope to follow in a great tradition of law officers on both sides of the aisle who have defended rights, freedoms and the Rule of Law’.
- Diane Abbott has been appointed shadow home secretary. On her promotion from shadow health secretary, Abbott said she was ‘honoured to serve’; ‘My first job when I left university was as a graduate trainee in the Home Office, so my career has come full circle’.
- Jon Ashworth is the new shadow health secretary. As a non-Corbyn supporter, this appointment suggests there is hope for the Labour leader’s offer of an olive branch.
- Clive Lewis is out as shadow defence secretary and in as shadow business secretary. The move comes after Lewis clashed with Seumas Milne — Corbyn’s outgoing director of communications — over Trident at Labour conference.
- Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, is in as shadow culture secretary.
- Nia Griffith has returned to the shadow cabinet as shadow defence secretary.
- Jo Stevens has been appointed shadow secretary of state for Wales.
- Sarah Champion has been appointed shadow women and equalities minister — after she was the first Labour MP to say she would like to return to Corbyn’s cabinet following the Labour coup. ‘I became an MP to make a difference,’ Champion says of her appointment. ‘Women and Equalities is something I have spent years fighting for and this appointment is a great honour.’
- Sir Keir Starmer is the new shadow Brexit secretary.
- Jonathan Reynolds has been appointed shadow economic secretary to the Treasury.
- Jon Trickett will be shadow Lord President of the Council and Labour’s national campaigns co-ordinator.
- Dawn Butler has been appointed shadow minister for diverse communities.
- John Healey is the shadow secretary for housing
- Andrew Gwynne has been appointed shadow minister without portfolio
- Valerie Vaz is the shadow leader of the house
- Barbara Keeley is shadow minister for mental health
OUT:
- Rosie Winterton has been let go as chief whip. After six years in the job — under three difference leaders — Winterton has released a statement thanking the whips and the PLP for their support. Corbyn has praised Winterton for playing ‘an outstanding role both in her support for me as leader and the Labour Party as a whole’.
- Andy Burnham used his speech at Labour conference to announce that he would step down as shadow home secretary to focus on the 2017 Greater Manchester mayoral election.
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