He added: “So I sat in my office until midnight two nights running in order to go through all of this”. Labour sources later claimed she had wanted the move to the culture, media and sport brief. She did not want to move.
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The co-chairman of Labour’s defence review, Ken Livingstone, has said it does not matter whether the United Kingdom is in North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as the Cold War is “over”. Mr Corbyn, he said, had taken them as a personal attack.
He added: “I have enjoyed the role a great deal and particularly the discussions I have had with you personally”. “So did Tom Watson”.
She replaced Maria Eagle, who was shifted to the culture brief vacated by the reshuffle’s most high-profile casualty Michael Dugher. I put it to him that Unite and the GMB might feel their positions, for Trident, were being circumvented.
David Cameron sought to capitalise on the Labour in-fighting at Prime Minister’s questions by goading the moderate frontbenchers – including Shadow Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn – who have opted to continue to serve on Mr Corbyn’s frontbench.
Not so, insisted Mr Jones.
A spokesman said: “I’ve stopped predicting how long these things take”.
In a letter to Jeremy Corbyn, he said he was resigning due to differences in opinion over the Trident nuclear deterrent. “But clearly the front bench is geographically a little bit unbalanced now”.
Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said: “This reshuffle shows that a divided Labour Party is a threat to national security”.
It comes after the shadow foreign secretary’s barnstorming speech supporting Syria airstrikes, which was seen as hugely damaging to Mr Corbyn’s leadership. “I want to see Britain’s contribution to worldwide affairs being one of not necessarily intervention, but one of democracy, of human rights and political process which is why the emphasis I made on the Syria debate was about the political outcome in Syria, which firstly ended the civil war”.
Labour MP Kevan Jones, who resigned yesterday as shadow armed forces minister, said: “This just reinforces that we are alienating mainstream opinion”.
Corbyn was elected party leader in 2015 after campaigning for a major overhaul in Labour’s image.
“I understand they are now before a solicitors’ tribunal…”
Labour MP John Woodcock (Barrow and Furness) told BBC News he was “losing hope” that the leadership was able – or even willing – to make sure the party stood a chance of winning the 2020 general election.
‘There will be those who worry – Love’s Labour’s Lost’.
“But frankly, we don’t need a lecture from Malta from you”. “So having her from a Welsh constituency but also in that position at a time when we have all these other broader justice issues that are impacting within Wales is, I think, an excellent choice and I wish her very, very well and I know she will do extremely well”. I’m afraid I don’t have confidence that will be the case.
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By that, Mr McDonnell meant a plebiscite of the members, where Jeremy Corbyn has very strong support.
