But with Jeremy Corbyn the favourite to stay on as leader, Sheffield MP Clive Betts suggested bringing them back as a “pragmatic measure” to reunite the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP).
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“Recognising the collective effort required in parliament, any candidate who can not get the backing of 15 per cent of the people they will lead clearly will not have the credibility to unite a parliamentary team and provide an effective opposition to the Tories”.
The tabloid included a short piece in its Daily Mail Comments article about the Q&A which took place on Wednesday with Mr Corbyn.
Ms McCarthy was among the first batch of Labour MPs who quit Mr Corbyn’s shadow cabinet in an attempt to oust him from power by claiming they had no confidence in his ability to win a general election.
Any final decision will have to be approved by the ruling National Executive Committee and at party conference.
“How the Shadow Cabinet is made up is one part of that debate, including whether part of it should be elected, by MPs, by members, or by conference”.
“I think we all suddenly realised that we are so used to politicians lying”, he said.
Neither Jeremy Corbyn nor Owen Smith were present at the meeting as they were at a hustings elsewhere.
“And I just don’t see how with shadow cabinet elections. how you get over that hurdle”.
But crucially, Mr Corbyn received far higher support than his rival among Labour supporters, receiving 41.4% favourable ratings compared with Mr Smith’s 23.7%.
And even outside of Corbyn’s supporters, one in four Labour voters said the idea was either probably or definitely true, while 19 per cent of the broader voting public said the same.
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Pontypridd MP Mr Smith said he was ready to “look very carefully” at the reintroduction of measure, arguing that it could help create a “sense of shared ownership” of the shadow cabinet by all Labour MPs.
