But supporters of Jeremy Corbyn want to allow MPs to choose only a third of the front bench, with party members and the leader himself each choosing a third.
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He said: “I’m proud that I have brought forward a positive programme for a future Labour government that would improve the lives and livelihoods of millions of our fellow citizens”.
Today the deputy leader showed signs of compromise, saying: “We’ve got to put the band back together”.
Jeremy Corbyn has told The Guardian anyone who quit the opposition frontbench will be welcomed back if they support “the general direction of the economy and policy”. “I think the idea that’s come out that the PLP potentially could elect a certain percentage of the shadow cabinet, the leader another percentage and the membership another percentage is a genuine idea and something that should be discussed and reviewed”, he said.
As part of his reconciliation efforts, the Labour leader has said he is willing to restore elections to the shadow cabinet.
However, that change would only come into effect after the victor of the latest leadership battle between Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith steps down.
Watson has also proposed the NEC scrap the current leadership rules, including the registered supporters category which was seen as key to Corbyn’s 2015 victory, and return to an electoral college system. “We want to remove that and we also want to enfranchise more ordinary trade unionists in the new process”, he said.
In a joint statement, Mr Watson and Labour former cabinet member Yvette Cooper, chairwoman of the Reclaim the Internet campaign, said: “This new pledge will mean every Labour member is making an active commitment to the values of decency and respect for others, both on and offline. But a longer term plan to try and unify the warring parts of the party”.
The Labour leader aims to enable the party’s 600,000-strong membership to elect some of the shadow cabinet in Westminster and give activists a direct say in policy.
This summer Dugdale called for Corbyn’s resignation after he lost a no confidence motion voted on by his MPs.
Any decisions taken today by the NEC will have to go to conference, which begins in Liverpool on Sunday, for approval.
But Mr Smith told Sky’s Murnaghan programme it would only deepen the gulf between MPs and new members.
He said it highlighted how Mr Smith had been “appallingly advised” by MPs who urged him to challenge Mr Corbyn but didn’t support him during the campaign.
“But whoever wins that leadership, we have got to swing in around that leader and make sure that they are the most electable leader we have”.
Mr Watson argued that their inclusion – introduced by former Labour leader Ed Miliband to broaden the franchise – had been “very rushed” and “unpopular”.
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Mr Corbyn said on Saturday that “democratisation of the party and the country is central to my agenda for change”. I think he will have to work incredibly hard to rebuild the bridges that have been burnt over the past year, to try and illustrate to the Labour Party in parliament that he is serious about taking on the Tories.
