Jeremy Corbyn believes he will be able to fill the vacant posts in his shadow cabinet without offering Labour MPs the right to elect them.
Shadow cabinet elections were proposed by the party’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, as a way of allowing rebel MPs to return to the frontbench with dignity.
Asked on Tuesday whether he thought he could fill his team, which was hit by mass resignations over the summer, without conceding on elections, the Labour leader told the Guardian: “Yes, I do. It’s already happening.”
“I’ve had lots of chats with lots of people, as have my team, and it’s very interesting. They basically want to make it work,” he said, adding that a “goodly number” would return to the frontbench.
Corbyn also appeared to undermine an intricate compromise announced by the shadow defence secretary, Clive Lewis, on the Trident nuclear deterrent, which Lewis and others had hoped would help persuade some disaffected MPs to return.
Lewis, who has taken over Labour’s defence review from the shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry, suggested on Tuesday that Labour would not come back to the issue of Trident before the next general election, though Corbyn would be free to campaign on the issue.
Asked in a separate, pooled interview with broadcasters whether the party’s policy was settled until 2020, Corbyn said: “The policy the party has from previous conference decisions does support the renewal of Trident. As you know, I never agreed with that decision.
“That’s the existing party policy. I cannot predict what will happen in the future, who will decide what they want to bring forward to conference.”
Corbyn’s critics, including Ben Bradshaw and John Woodcock, who represents the Barrow constituency where Trident’s replacement submarines are due to be built, had welcomed the compromise. The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, suggested the issue would be “parked”.
Senior MPs told the Guardian Corbyn and his team were already holding “interviews” with potential recruits to the shadow cabinet, though there have been disputes about the “terms and conditions”, including whether Corbyn’s allies can vet new shadow ministers’ political advisers.
Corbyn suggested he would expect his new team to sign up to the 10 policy principles he has presented to the party’s national executive committee (NEC), and which he hopes to have agreed by Labour conference.
“I want good communications between the team and within the team and a very clear idea of where we’re going, which is why I put the 10 points as an NEC statement to conference, so that we move forward and develop policies around a framework that’s agreed,” he said.
Corbyn suffered a setback on the conference floor on Tuesday when delegates passed a package of NEC reforms that will cede significant independence to the Scottish and Welsh parties. Crucially, it gives both a seat on the NEC, undermining Corbyn’s hold over the party’s sovereign rulemaking body.
The Scottish Labour leader, Kezia Dugdale, and Welsh leader, Carwyn Jones, have both been critical of his leadership.
Corbyn has long sought to give greater power over party policymaking to grassroots members, and he is expected to seek to boost their representation at a “democracy day” in November.
“We’re having a democracy awayday for the NEC in early November, which gives a month for unions and constituencies to put their ideas forward for democratising policymaking, for the future structure of the NEC beyond this year,” he said.
Some MPs fear that strengthening the representation of members is a way for Corbyn to bypass MPs sceptical of his policies, or make it easier to deselect them from their seats.
Some of his allies, including the key union backer Len McCluskey, have suggested that disloyal MPs were “asking for it”. Corbyn aroused fear among some on Sunday when he said the “vast majority” did not have to worry about deselection.
