Meanwhile, shadow rail minister Jonathan Reynolds and Stephen Doughty, a shadow foreign minister, quit over the sacking of shadow Europe minister Pat McFadden.
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Maria Eagle has also been moved from the key defence brief and replaced by Emily Thornberry – known to share Mr Corbyn’s views on scrapping Britain’s nuclear deterrent.
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.
The reshuffle was far less dramatic than some had predicted, with Blairites such as shadow justice secretary Lord Falconer keeping their jobs.
Causes of terrorism Europe shadow secretary Mr McFadden said he had been sacked in part because of comments he made in parliament seemingly at odds with statements Mr Corbyn had made on the causes of terrorism.
He said: “We have had a few junior members resign today and of course that’s their right but they do all come from a sort of a narrow right-wing clique within the Labour party based around the organisation Progress, largely”.
Paraphrasing Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner, a poem in which an albatross carries a curse on the crew of a ship, Mr Cameron said: “Never mind how many Eagles we end up with, I think you have all worked out you’ve got an albatross at the head of your party”. “I want a proper conversation about what defences we need”.
“The security and wellbeing of my constituents must always be my first consideration, and I therefore believe my colleague Pat McFadden was right to condemn those who absolve Isis (Islamic State) for their actions following the atrocities in Paris”.
Corbyn, a veteran left-wing activist, was elected party leader after the election by tapping into a desire for change among grass-roots party members.
Denying that he had staged a “revenge” reshuffle, he told journalists it was an “adjustment”.
Now, it seems the shadow front bench team will be able to speak out on free votes but only from the backbenches if they disagree with the leader.
Britain’s Labour Party has begun the new year at war with itself, as leader Jeremy Corbyn struggles to assert his authority over restive lawmakers. We have had a long discussion about how we approach foreign policy issues. Ed Miliband’s told me the same.
“Jeremy has reshuffled his Cabinet to a relatively small degree”. “That’s one of the things we will look at. You did politics at university, you became a special adviser, you became an MP, you became a minister, who are rightfully upset, because Jeremy has brought a whole lot of new energy and new people into politics”.
He is the only Greater Manchester MP affected by last night’s reshuffle, which was widely seen as as a move by Mr Corbyn to exert more party discipline.
A senior Labour source said Mr Corbyn had reached an “agreement” with Mr Benn that there could be no repeat of the situation over Syria airstrikes – when they set out opposing views from the despatch box.
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But Mr Benn declared as he left his London home: “I have not been muzzled”.
