Jeremy Corbyn has finalised his first shadow ministerial team, rewarding many of the MPs who nominated him but also Blairites and some who have been personally critical of his leadership.
A Labour spokesman said the frontbench team was designed to be “inclusive across the party” and generous with jobs to the recent intake of MPs as a “clear commitment to the future of the party”.
Young MPs who were promoted include Cat Smith, the 30-year-old MP for Lancaster and Fleetwood, who used to work in Corbyn’s office as a researcher and will be a shadow women’s minister, and Melanie Onn, the 36-year-old MP for Grimsby, who will be a shadow minister in the House of Commons leader’s office.
Lord Collins, who helped design the new Labour leadership electoral system that got Corbyn elected, is a new whip, while Keir Starmer, the former director of public prosecutions, who is tipped as a possible future leader, joins the shadow home affairs team.
Emily Thornberry, the former shadow attorney general, is returning to the frontbench less than a year after she resigned for tweeting a picture of a white van and England flag, sparking a controversy about whether she was mocking the occupants of a house in Strood, Kent.
Prominent Blairites include Pat McFadden, who is staying on as shadow minister for Europe after assurances Labour would campaign to stay in the EU. Jonathan Reynolds, who worked on Chuka Umunna’s shortlived leadership bid and then supported Liz Kendall, will be a shadow transport minister and explained in an article for the Huffington Post that Labour’s moderates needed to work with Corbyn.
Diana Johnson, who was critical of Corbyn’s failure to appoint any women to shadow the four great offices of state, has been made a Foreign Office minister.
While Corbyn’s cabinet contains more women than men by 16 to 15, some female Labour MPs have expressed dismay that the leader, deputy leader, shadow chancellor, shadow home secretary and shadow foreign secretary are all men. Overall, there are about 70 male shadow ministers and 50 female shadow ministers.
One of the more controversial appointments was Lord Watson as a shadow education minister. He served eight months of a 16-month prison sentence for fire-raising after he drunkenly set fire to a hotel curtain in 2004. He was expelled from Labour but was allowed back into the party in 2012.
Corbyn made some official appointments to his advisory team, drawing on expertise at trade unions. Andrew Fisher, author of the economics book The Failed Experiment, who formerly worked at the PCS civil servants union, is Corbyn’s new adviser on policy. Anneliese Midgley, formerly of Unite, is his deputy chief of staff and Kevin Slocombe, who used to work at the Communications Workers Union, is his new director of communications.
