These are the latest appointments to Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet:
Shadow Chancellor
John McDonnell MP
Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Seema Malhotra MP
Shadow BIS
Angela Eagle MP
This tells us two things about Corbyn. One is that he is loyal to his friends. He and McDonnell have worked together for years, with Corbyn focusing on foreign policy while his friend stuck to economic policy. McDonnell wanted to be Shadow Chancellor, even though Angela Eagle clearly also fancied the job – and was a more credible candidate. Corbyn’s friend won.
The second thing is that Corbyn is clearly keen to push the party as far left as quickly as possible. This means that if someone takes over from him, they will have to spend time unpicking policies that will be a dramatic departure from Labour’s 2015 election offer.
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