Three British Labour Party frontbenchers have resigned after party leader Jeremy Corbyn sacked two “disloyal” senior figures and promoted a Trident opponent in a shadow cabinet reshuffle.
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The close ally of Mr Corbyn said the leader had inherited a parliamentary party which was “well to the right” of the membership, and made clear his belief that MPs should bow to the wishes of activists on the direction taken by Labour.
Three MPs who resigned from the Labour front bench have been dismissed by the shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell, as being drawn from a “narrow right-wing clique” as the turmoil at the top of the party intensified.
She has taken the place of Maria Eagle, who was said to be blocking Mr Corbyn’s desire to oppose Trident, the renewal of the UK’s nuclear deterrent.
But he added Europe spokesman Pat McFadden to the casualty list alongside shadow culture secretary Michael Dugher.
Mr McFadden had warned Mr Corbyn against carrying out a “purge” of moderates, and is understood to have infuriated the leadership with his thinly veiled criticism of Mr Corbyn’s response to the Paris attacks.
When asked about his exchanges with Michael Dugher, whom he sacked as Shadow Culture Secretary, he said: “We’ve had an exchange of views”.
Mr McFadden said he agreed to stay on the front bench when Mr Corbyn became leader because he believed the upcoming referendum on Britain’s relationship with Europe was of “huge importance”. We have had a long discussion about how we approach foreign policy issues.
The announcement followed 34 hours of negotiations with other senior members of the team, known as the shadow cabinet.
Benn said: “I haven’t been muzzled”.
Jeremy Corbyn has removed some of the Labour party’s most strident pro-war voices from key positions.
In the House of Commons Mr McFadden then called on David Cameron to reject such a view.
Ms Thornberry insisted she wanted a “truly open policy review” on the future of Trident – but Mr Corbyn hopes to change policy-making rules to allow it to be set via a poll of members and supporters.
Mr Benn posted on Twitter: “Pat McFadden made an outstanding contribution as shadow minister in arguing the case for Britain’s place in EU”. “The idea that there are curbs on Hilary’s activities and that he signed up to them as a prerequisite for serving are completely untrue”, a friend of Benn said.
And while we await further developments in this most prolonged of reshuffles, the ousted Mr Dugher has hardly minced his words, declaring that his sacking was an act of revenge for speaking out about the systematic “trashing” of the reputations of shadow cabinet colleagues. “And one thing we can agree on is you get what you see, which is basically someone who believes in what he says”.
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The reshuffle highlighted Corbyn’s difficulties in leading a group of lawmakers who largely don’t support him. “The reason I don’t see it happening is because I think it would be inconsistent with what Jeremy has talked about since he got the leadership, which is about ” having debate”, he said.
