The shadow attorney general became the first full member of the shadow cabinet to resign under Corbyn and will now have to be replaced, meaning the Labour leader’s reshuffle of his top team will stretch into an unprecedented eighth day. Owen Smith, the shadow work and pensions secretary, and Lord Falconer, the shadow justice secretary, have both faced questions on whether they would walk away from the front bench over the issue.
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Parliament is expected to vote later this year on whether to give the go-ahead for a new generation of submarines to carry the Trident missiles.
He told the World At One: “The Labour Party policy at the moment, reaffirmed at the party conference recently, is the renewal of Trident”.
Former Labour frontbencher Dan Jarvis has suggested he may not represent the party at the 2020 election if its policy is to scrap the Trident nuclear deterrent.
But, Mc McKinnell also revealed she had grown disillusioned with Labour’s prospects under Mr Corbyn.
“Renewing Trident, in my view, goes against the fundamental spirit of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, which requires the five declared nuclear weapons states not to renew their weapons systems”.
And that review would be “comprehensive” and would consider the “protection of skills and jobs”. A members’ ballot, however, if approved by the NEC, would allow conference, at which the unions hold 50 per cent of the vote, to be circumvented.
Speaking on his LBC radio show, Mr Livingstone said only three of about 25 staff in Mr Corbyn’s office had worked for him.
Hitting back on Twitter, Mr Dugher said: “So let me get this right, Ken: Lab PM Gordon Brown led a “brutal regime”.
Meanwhile, shadow education secretary Lucy Powell, has also faced a grilling on Trident.
“We have a team which is strong”.
“I am happy with it”.
Ms McKinnell said the party was on an “increasingly negative path” following a flurry of resignations in the wake of Mr Corbyn’s reshuffle – seen by many to quieten dissenters.
But the Labour leader said his position had been misconstrued.
He added: “I am absolutely not in favour of terrorism of any sort”.
He refused to rule out launching drone strikes to kill suspected terrorists in Syria or Iraq.
The unrest comes as Labour faces a major cash battle with up to £6 million of its annual funding at risk, according to documents seen by the Guardian.
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“Indeed, he should be trying to unite the party, rather than ramping up rhetoric against part of the party who are very loyal servants of the Labour party, their constituents and, indeed, great opposers of this austerity Conservative government”.
