Labour’s reshuffle isn’t, as some foolishly alleged, over. It may never end, as frontbenchers decide to resign over the internal warfare in the party. This morning Catherine McKinnell, who was Shadow Attorney General, has resigned, citing family reasons, the struggle to balance frontbench and constituency life, and ‘the situation in which the Labour Party now finds itself’, which the Newcastle North MP says has ‘amplified’ the first two issues. She writes:
‘However, as events have unfolded over recent weeks, my concerns about the direction and internal conflict within the Labour Party have only grown, and I fear this is taking us down an increasingly negative path. I feel that I would like to channel my energy constructively, into making positive changes for my constituents.’
McKinnell isn’t the only one to step away from a frontbench brief. Paula Sheriff has also reportedly quit as PPS to Jon Trickett.
All of these resignations have been outside the Shadow Cabinet (though the Attorney General position does sometimes float into the Shadow Cabinet when it helps gender balance), which might make it easy for some to dismiss as small fry. But what it also shows is that there is a divide between those junior frontbenchers who think it just isn’t worth staying in any more, and those Shadow Cabinet members who believe that they must hold on to their jobs for as long as possible for the good of the party.
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