Shadow railways minister Jonathan Reynolds, shadow foreign affairs minister Stephen Doughty and shadow minister for the armed forces Kevan Jones resigned in protest over the sackings today.
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Europe shadow secretary Pat McFadden said he had been sacked in part because of comments he made in parliament seemingly at odds with statements Corbyn had made on the causes of terrorism.
Emily Thornberry, who like Mr Corbyn is against Trident, will take on the defence brief in her place.
Shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn, who openly disagrees with Corbyn on key issues, escaped the axe in the shake-up.
Maria Eagle has been named shadow culture secretary after the removal of Michael Dugher from the role.
He denied he had been “muzzled” by Corbyn, after reportedly agreeing not to publicly criticise the leader’s policy positions.
Given the “frankly laughable” amount of time it took to enact the minor reshuffle, Cameron said Corbyn “couldn’t run anything”, let alone the government.
He added: “North Korea’s deeply disturbing claim to have exploded its first hydrogen bomb underlines the importance of taking our national security seriously, not handing it to a Labour Party that would unilaterally disarm Britain”.
Shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn, whose position was rumoured to be under threat following his impassioned Commons speech urging military action in Syria, will remain in his role.
Ms Thornberry will now replace Ms Eagle in co-chairing Labour’s defence review alongside Mr Livingstone.
Unconfirmed reports had suggested a number of the Labour frontbench could quit if Mr Benn was removed.
Labour’s elected deputy leader Tom Watson led a chorus of senior figures bemoaning the “loss” of Mr Dugher, a close ally of former prime minister Gordon Brown, from the shadow cabinet.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has compared staging a reshuffle to playing “multi-dimensional chess” and revealed that he signed off on the last appointments by text message while on stage at a rally in support of legal aid.
Asked if the changes had been forced on Mr Corbyn, the source said: “Some we are choosing to do, and a few people are offering their resignations”. He said Thornberry “knows nothing about defence” and should not have replaced Eagle.
He added: “I never pretended that I agreed with Mr Corbyn on everything else and it’s not a surprise that I didn’t”.
“The reality is that flood defence scheme after flood defence scheme has been cancelled, postponed or cut”, said Mr Corbyn.
‘It was a revenge reshuffle so it was going to be As You Like It. I think though we can conclude it’s turned into something of a Comedy of Errors, perhaps Much Ado About Nothing? “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.
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Former Labour leadership candidate Chuka Umunna said: “Sad to see Jonathan Reynolds leave our front bench – a huge talent who will now make a big contribution promoting Labour values from the back benches”.
