Jeremy Corbyn has let off the 10 frontbenchers and three party whips who defied the party line and voted against Brexit on Wednesday night with a formal written warning.
The Labour leader had suggested he would be “lenient” in dealing with the 52 Labour MPs, many of them from strongly remain-voting constituencies, who refused to toe the party line and vote for the government’s Brexit bill at its third reading.
But the scale of the rebellion raised questions about whether the party has become ungovernable in the wake of the referendum result. Backbencher Chris Leslie, who refused to back the bill, said: “Collective unity, especially among the ‘payroll’ vote, ought to be a trait for any putative government-in-waiting. In a parliamentary system, the team is everything”.
Corbyn met his chief whip, seasoned party veteran Nick Brown, on Friday to discuss how to discipline wayward MPs. Brown believes the Brexit vote was one of the most momentous in many MPs’ parliamentary careers, and was said by allies to have counselled a cautious approach.
All MPs who defied the whip will now be sent a written warning, and Labour sources made clear that frontbenchers would also be given a clear signal that if they defied the whip again they would automatically be sacked. Some have been expecting to lose their jobs since voting against the second reading of the bill last week.
Corbyn had made clear that MPs would not be allowed to defy the whip and remain in the shadow cabinet, however, and four – Clive Lewis, Rachael Maskell, Dawn Butler and Jo Stevens – resigned, rather than obey his instructions and support the bill, which will enable the government to invoke the formal divorce process from the European Union.
Labour hopes the announcement will mark the end of a destabilising period for the party, which has seen the leadership grappling with the dilemmas created by the referendum result. Corbyn’s team felt they had no choice but to back the government’s Brexit bill, rather than risk being portrayed as ignoring the voters’ choice.
Corbyn also made the final move in the reshuffle triggered by the resignations on Friday, handing the crucial job of gearing Labour up to fight the next general election to Andrew Gwynne and Ian Lavery.
Gwynne and Lavery have agreed to take on the role with less than a fortnight to go until a pair of crucial byelections in Copeland and Stoke-on-Trent Central.
Jon Trickett, who had previously been Labour’s election coordinator and is usually deemed a key Corbyn loyalist, was stripped of the role and will now be shadow cabinet office minister.
Trickett’s sideways move was not triggered by resignations, however, but by disquiet about the scale of the challenge Labour faces in closing the gap with the Conservatives.
He had told the Guardian as recently as December that he was busy honing the party’s election strategy and preparing to unleash Labour’s half a million members in an unprecedented campaigning spree. But Labour sources said it was felt the job was too much for him. “He had a lot on his plate,” said one shadow cabinet member.
Other party sources suggested Trickett’s removal from the job partly resulted from what one called a “purge” by Corbyn’s powerful lieutenant, Karie Murphy.
Trickett was said by friends to be upset that news of the move had leaked before he was told about it.
Corbyn has repeatedly been forced to reshuffle his top team after waves of resignations, including the mass walkouts that preceded last summer’s bruising leadership challenge.
Gwynne, the 42-year-old MP for the Stockport seat of Denton and Reddish, is masterminding Labour’s campaign in Copeland and reports back regularly to Labour MPs. He is popular with party staff, and also ran the Oldham West and Royton byelection in December 2015, helping Jim McMahon achieve a convincing victory.
He said: “I’m looking forward to working with my friend Ian, coordinating our national elections and campaigns. Jon Trickett is one of the most decent and talented political figures in the Labour party, and I look forward to continuing his work”.
Labour now hopes that the angst of the past month can be set aside, allowing the party to turn its focus instead on to issues including the social care crisis and the NHS.
Corbyn managed to wrongfoot Theresa May at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday when he read out leaked texts from the leader of Surrey council appearing to suggest it had been promised special treatment in exchange for calling off a planned referendum over a 15% increase in council tax.
It later emerged that the council had been allowed to become the first area to pilot a new scheme allowing local authorities to keep more of the revenue from business rates.
