Jeremy Corbyn is expected to press ahead with a controversial reshuffle of his shadow cabinet, amid warnings that the party “is a broad church, not a religious cult”.
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Jonathan Reynolds and Stephen Doughty quit over the sacking of the shadow Europe minister Pat McFadden.
After two days of deliberations Maria Eagle, who is in favour of Trident, was removed as shadow defence secretary and replaced with Emily Thornberry, an anti-war MP who is sympathetic to Mr Corbyn’s calls to scrap Trident.
Ms Thornberry, the Islington South MP and shadow employment minister, had been tipped to take over from Ms Eagle – who has had her own differences with Mr Corbyn over the future of the UK’s Trident nuclear weapons system.
Mr Corbyn insisted he had good relations with Hilary Benn, the Shadow Foreign Secretary who kept his job despite speculation that he might be sacked.
Corbyn promoted Emily Thornberry, who is against the Trident missile system, to shadow defence secretary.
Benn was also forced to deny he was issued with a gaging order banning him from criticising the leader in public.
But veteran left-winger Paul Flynn said: ” Stability reshuffle drops Commons under-performers Dugher and McFadden, keeps talented Benn, and inevitably loses soaring Eagle.
“We shouldn’t be asking if the leader of the opposition is happy to have the Member for Leeds Central, we know he’s not, the question is ‘what on earth is the Member for Leeds Central and others doing in this Labour party government?'”.
The changes, finalised at 12.45am, sparked dismay from some Labour MPs, but were far less dramatic than some had predicted, with Blairites such as shadow justice secretary Lord Falconer retaining their posts.
“The reason I don’t see it happening is because I think it would be inconsistent with what Jeremy has talked about since he got the leadership, which is about ” having debate”, he said.
He told the BBC on Wednesday morning that Corbyn had told him he thought his comments were “an attack on him and that he had come to the conclusion because of that and one or two other things that I shouldn’t continue”.
Mr Dugher had warned against a “revenge reshuffle” earlier in the month, saying the leader must remember the “Labour party is a broad church, not a religious cult”.
“It is that that led Mr Corbyn to believe I should not serve on the frontbench”.
McDonnell said Corbyn was trying to “hold everyone together but be very clear about our direction of travel in terms of policy”. The Labour Party needs credible policies on defence and security. This follows his announcement on Tuesday that his cabinet ministers would be allowed to campaign for or against Britain’s membership in the European Union in the run-up to he referendum.
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With a long-standing background as a left-wing activist, Corbyn managed to attract younger voters and new members to the party after Labour lost the general election of May 2015 under Ed Milliband’s leadership.
