Labour MPs are to vote on Tuesday on whether to reinstate a system of electing shadow cabinet members, in an attempt to promote unity within the badly-split parliamentary party.
The MPs have from 10am to 5pm to take part in a secret ballot on the proposal, put forward by Clive Betts, who represents Sheffield South East for the party.
Betts’ plan to reintroduce the system, which was abolished under Ed Miliband in 2011, was put to a meeting of the parliamentary Labour party on Monday night, and saw no MPs speak against it, a party source said. Neither Jeremy Corbyn nor Owen Smith were present at the meeting as they were at a hustings elsewhere.
Betts told MPs he had come up with the idea without input from the camps of Corbyn and Smith, who are battling it out for the leadership, and hoped it would bring more unity.
“He conceded that it might put some pressure on the new leader, whoever that is, because it might choose members of the shadow cabinet they might not pick,” the Labour source said.
“He also made the point that it might put pressure on some people who might not have wanted to return to come back. So it works both ways.”
The source quoted Betts as telling his fellow MPs: “We’ve got to find a way of working together, whoever our leader is, because we have responsibilities to all those people who’ve supported Labour in previous elections, and elections to come.”
Until the system ended, Labour MPs would vote for people to fill frontbench positions when the party was in opposition.
Even if Betts’ motion is voted through, it is by no means certain to come into being. The proposal would need to be approved by Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC), which is seen to have a pro-Corbyn majority, and then be confirmed by the annual conference later this month.
Corbyn has not backed the idea, suggesting instead that the shadow cabinet could be chosen by Labour members, who are notably more supportive of him than the majority of the party’s MPs, who in June voted 172 to 40 that they had no confidence in his leadership.
A Corbyn spokesman has said the Labour leader “supports democratisation and reform of the party rules and structures”.
He added: “How the shadow cabinet is made up is one part of that debate, including whether part of it should be elected by MPs, by members, or by conference. Any review also needs to take account of the need to represent regions and nations.”
