A split among senior Labour MPs over whether to serve in Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet has led to a warning that the party is in danger of wallowing in a “fresh round of division and resentment” between “innies and outies”.
In recent days the new deputy leader, Tom Watson, and Corbyn’s campaign manager, Simon Fletcher, have been seeking to persuade mainstream frontbenchers to engage with the new leader despite their major differences on policy.
On Saturday, those who said they would be willing to join the new team included the MPs Liam Byrne, Mary Creagh and John Healey. Lucy Powell MP, vice-chair of Labour’s last general election campaign, said she could also serve under Corbyn if the position offered was right and certain “conditions” were met, including the appointment of someone other than John McDonnell MP, chair of the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs, as shadow chancellor.
However, a host of other major names, including Tristram Hunt, the shadow education secretary, Emma Reynolds, the shadow communities secretary and Rachel Reeves, shadow work and pensions secretary, announced or indicated they could not serve. Jamie Reed, a shadow health minister, tweeted his resignation letter immediately on the announcement of Corbyn’s victory.
Liz Kendall, who received 4.5% of the vote in the leadership contest, will not serve and neither will shadow chancellor Chris Leslie.
It is understood that Andy Burnham, who came second in the leadership contest, is now unsure as to whether he will take up an invitation to work with Corbyn. One source said Burnham had been approached but that the chances of him joining the shadow cabinet were “slim”.
Corbyn will announce shadow cabinet positions over the next 48 hours, with the position of shadow chancellor regarded as a key indicator of whether he is truly seeking to incorporate a range of different sections of the party in his team.
McDonnell, his closest political ally, is in the frame, but his appointment would be seen as an insular move by many in the centre of the party who would prefer to see Angela Eagle in the role.
Passions were running high as one current shadow cabinet minister, who has ruled out joining the new shadow cabinet, condemned those who were now indicating a willingness to work with Corbyn.
“People think we are unprincipled, and to be fair for the last five years I have defended things I haven’t agreed with to an extent,” he said.
“I’m not willing to do that again. It is quite simply a matter of principle. It is the old right who are saying that they are ready to serve because they cannot bear the idea of letting go of the party machinery.”
The resentment growing within the parliamentary party between those who will serve and those who will not has led to John Woodcock MP, chair of the Blairite group, Progress, to warn of the emergence of a new split to replace the Blair-Brown chasm that marked the last two decades of Labour politics.
Writing on this newspaper’s website, Woodcock, who supported Liz Kendall, said: “MPs face an early choice over whether they wish to serve on Jeremy’s front bench if asked. Some, like me, will decide that his position on issues like the EU, on Nato and his willingness to meet proscribed terrorist organisations means they could not accept the burden of collective responsibility and unity of voting that being part of the front bench team requires. Others will feel duty bound to serve as shadow ministers in spite of their differences.
“Both choices will be motivated by the same desire to maximise Labour’s chances of winning again and putting our values into practice.
“There are many ways to serve; it is critically important these deeply personal decisions do not entrench a fresh round of division and resentment between MPs who choose to be ‘innies’ and those who are ‘outies’.
“If we are to move on from here we must recognise how damaging it has been for Labour people – who have all basically wanted the same thing – to have knocked lumps out of each other for 20 years.”
Chuka Umunna, the shadow business secretary, has not resigned from the shadow cabinet but sources close to the former leadership candidate said he had not yet been approached by Corbyn about continuing in a role, and it was unlikely that he would continue in position beyond this week.
In his acceptance speech, Watson made public a call for unity which he has been making privately in a series of meetings in recent days. Watson said: “To those who feel alarmed by the scale of difference between the old world and the new I say this: There is only one Labour.”
Former Labour leader Ed Miliband also said that he hoped the parliamentary party would now support Corbyn. The Observer has learned that Miliband had been privately backing Burnham for the job, and even considered making an intervention at a late stage, asking in an email to one aide to the shadow health secretary: “Will it make a difference?”
Miliband did not, in the end, speak out and on Saturday said he would back the new leader: “I offer Jeremy Corbyn my support in what is a very difficult and demanding job, and I hope that people across the party will do the same.
“At the same time, I hope and expect that Jeremy will do everything he can to reach out and use the talents of people right across the party in the task of taking on the Tories and facing up to the very big challenges that we face.
“For my part, I will be supporting his work by advancing the causes I care most about – including tackling inequality and climate change – from the backbenches.”
Former deputy prime minister Lord Prescott also urged high-profile figures to “get behind” Corbyn, warning that the “real enemy is the Tories”.
“The party gave an overwhelming endorsement to this man. He got more votes than Tony Blair. The party has spoken in a very, very strong voice,” he said.
Lord Soley, a former chairman of the parliamentary Labour party, said he feared that Corbyn’s victory “may have handed the next election to the Tory party”.
Comparing the choice of leader to that of Iain Duncan Smith taking charge of the Conservatives in 2001, Soley said: “They very quickly got rid of IDS. I do not see that happening as quickly with Labour.”
