The leadership said Mr McFadden was sacked for comments he made in the Commons after the Paris outrages when he attacked the Left-wing view shared by Mr Corbyn that Western interventions in the Middle East provoked terrorist attacks.
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In what was seen as a compromise with Labour’s more moderate members, however, the party’s shadow foreign minister Hilary Benn, who had been tipped to be ousted after openly opposing Corbyn past year over military action in Syria, kept his job. You start off with a chess board and that’s fine, then you realise you are actually playing a game on a parallel board as well and then you suddenly find there’s a third board down the road.
“I think the MPs including Jonathan Reynolds need to respect that and need to understand that Jeremy is in tune with a lot of people in this country, was in tune with the majority of his shadow cabinet – even before the reshuffle – and with the majority of Labour MPs, who voted against the bombing of Syria”.
“We finally completed all the appointments last night by a series of text messages whilst I was on the platform at a huge rally in support of legal aid…”
While Reynolds and Doughty are protesting over McFadden being fired for “disloyalty”, Jones stepped down over Corbyn’s decision to replace pro-nuclear weapons MP Maria Eagle with unilateralist Emily Thornberry.
Mr Doughty dismissed her attack as “nonsense”, pointing out he worked for more than seven years for global charities including Oxfam and campaigns such as Make Poverty History before an 18-month spell as a special adviser at the Department for worldwide Development under the last Labour government.
Following the reshuffle, three other frontbenchers quit in response. At least nine members of the shadow Cabinet then expressed disappointment that Dugher was removed.
“He has recognised the mandate that Jeremy Corbyn has with our members, an overwhelming mandate, and he’ll recognise his leadership on this issue”.
“He referred a few times to this question”, McFadden told the BBC, describing his conversation with the Labour leader.
Ms Hollern fills the vacancy left in the defence team by Wednesday’s resignation of Kevan Jones, while Ms Rayner joins the work and pensions team following Emily Thornberry’s promotion from employment spokeswoman to shadow defence secretary.
Mr McDonnell said the trio were linked to the New Labour pressure group, Progress.
The PM replied: “I have the greatest sympathy with anyone who has been flooded and we have to do what it takes to get to people and get communities back on their feet”. Just take a look at this retweet from Labour MP and former Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw.
McDonnell said that Corbyn was trying to “hold everyone together” while being “very clear about our direction of travel in terms of policy”.
Of course if Labour really wanted to put its money where its mouth is, they could try appointing a woman to one of the four roles widely seen to be the most senior.
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Christian MP for Cardiff South and Penarth Stephen Doughty resigned live on air on the BBC’s Daily Politics programme.
