BBC Newsnight is reporting that Jeremy Corbyn was particularly irked by the cheering in the House of Commons chamber which greeted Hilary Benn’s speech last month as MPs prepared to vote to extend UK airstrikes to cover Islamic State in Syria.
A key advisor has told Newsnight that the reshuffle is emphatically not a “revenge reshuffle”, however.
The studio is glaringly bereft of any Labour MPs though. An indication perhaps that any fireworks are being kept until the morning? We’re calling it a night.
Updated
It was Ken Clarke ‘wot won it?’
Rowena Mason and Nicholas Watt report that Corbyn wants the reshuffle to be modest and limited in scope and that he was struck by Ken Clarke’s advice on the Today programme that Margaret Thatcher’s reshuffles were incremental.
(Listen in to Clarke’s advice here by scrolling to around 02.54)
But two years into office she did conduct a purge of the “wets” – a process said to be anathema to the Labour leader.
Clarke told Today: “She had people who wouldn’t accept her authority but they wanted her to go more slowly and she steadily got rid of them one by one”
So, the dramatic reshuffle predicted by some appears not to be materialising after all.
Damian McBride, who had a good view of reshuffles during the Blair-Brown era, isn’t impressed:
On the gradation of Labour's botched reshuffles over recent years, we've now officially gone full dressing-gown.
— Damian McBride (@DPMcBride) January 4, 2016
Updated
The Telegraph is also reporting that Hilary Benn may survive the reshuffle “after being warned he faced mass resignations”.
Updated
Corbyn wants to act with care to avoid a bloodbath, as he seeks to maintain what has been called his “big tent” approach to politics – which involved appointing only a handful of his own supporters to the shadow cabinet, says the Guardian’s Nicholas Watt.
The Labour leader’s caution means that he has approached the reshuffle with a range of options on how to achieve greater coherence in the sensitive areas of foreign and defence policy.
His ideal solution would involve moving Benn and Eagle to other senior posts, but he acknowledges that this may not be possible if it would risk a damaging split.
He could then downgrade his ambitions to moving just one of the two or reaching an understanding that they would remain in post in return for acknowledging and respecting the mandate he received in the Labour leadership contest.
Updated
Labour spokesman: reshuffle talks over
Labour chief whip Rosie Winterton and shadow chancellor John McDonnell have just left Jeremy Corbyn’s office after about seven
hours of meetings.
A Labour spokesman confirms Corbyn’s reshuffle talks are all over for tonight. Announcements are expected tomorrow.
Updated
Another tip, this time courtesy of Paul Waugh of the HuffingtonPost UK.
We can expect the new Shadow Cabinet tomorrow. I suspect at least one poss two of Eagle, Benn, Winterton will hv new roles
— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) January 4, 2016
Corbyn wants to move Hilary Benn and Maria Eagle
Jeremy Corbyn wants to shift Hilary Benn and Maria Eagle from their jobs as shadow foreign secretary and shadow defence secretary with the aim of asserting his authority over the divisive policy areas that have dogged his leadership, write Nicholas Watt and Rowena Mason of the Guardian’s political team.
As the Labour leader begins the delicate process of his first reshuffle of the shadow cabinet since his election in September, Nick and Rowena say that Sources indicated the Labour leader wants to navigate a course between two competing pressures.
On the one hand, he believes that Labour must have coherence on foreign and defence policy to avoid continual conflict with Benn, on military action, and with Eagle, on the renewal of the Trident nuclear weapons programme.
Corbyn believes that the deep differences on foreign and defence policy in the shadow cabinet are overshadowing what he regards as unprecedented consensus on domestic and economic policy.
But Corbyn wants to act with care to avoid a bloodbath, as he seeks to maintain what has been called his “big tent” approach to politics – which involved appointing only a handful of his own supporters to the shadow cabinet.
Read on here.
Updated
While the Labour front bench remains (unusually?) tigh-lipped, the guessing game continues.
The New Statesman’s Stephen Bush, a canny observer of Corbyn’s new Labour party, suggests:
My guess: both Eagle and Corbyn have survived - but as what, who knows: https://t.co/Aq9kBU7wcC
— Stephen Bush (@stephenkb) January 4, 2016
The Sun’s Harry Cole reads the runes a touch differently:
Bubble rumour mill in overdrive but lots of chatter Benn might have survived but Maria less lucky. But nothing firm yet - just eery silence
— Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) January 4, 2016
Updated
The story surrounding Ukip leader Nigel Farage’s claims that his near brush with death last October on a French motorway may have been a failed assassination attempt continues to develop meanwhile.
Volvo has quashed suggestions that a known manufacturing fault with Farage’s car may have been behind the incident in which all four of the nuts on one of the wheels came loose and caused him to lose control.
Farage had said he was told by French police who inspected the vehicle that “sometimes nuts on one wheel can come a bit loose – but not on all four”.
It emerged on Monday that a recall notice issued by Volvo in 2010 for 186 cars – potentially including Farage’s V70 model – warned the “wheel-securing bolts may not have undergone the correct hardening process”.
The discovery fuelled speculation that Farage’s car may not have been returned to the manufacturer for the wheel fault to be fixed and could have caused the circumstances the Ukip leader described as “frightening”.
But Volvo told me this evening that Farage’s registration number meant the car could not have been built before February 2010, ruling it out of that recall pool.
A spokesman for the Swedish manufacturer said:
The small number of cars affected by this recall were model year-2011 vehicles only – built post-May 2010.
To have [Farage’s registration], the car must have been registered and therefore built prior to February 2010 (at the latest) so would not have been subject to this recall.
Updated
Whatever comes of Corbyn’s approach, it’s sometimes said that one of his predecessors (Tony Blair) never quite mastered the art of the reshuffle.
Of course, a major factor in Blair’s shuffling of his cabinet pack in government was the presence of Gordon Brown and the resulting tensions over the fate of supporters of their respective camps.
From that period, Former Brown advisor Damian McBride, recalled in his memoirs that in the 2002 reshuffle:
Tony forgot Home Office minister Angela Eagle existed, gave someone else her job and effectively sacked her from the Government by mistake – and without informing her.
She’s unlikely to be far from the mind of the current Labour Party leader.
Updated
A bang or two might yet be in store, though perhaps not until a little later, according to the Labour activist Mark Ferguson.
Reshuffle tips: if there’s anything contentious it’ll probably be hidden until after 10 to avoid the news, tomorrow’s papers and Newsnight
— Mark Ferguson (@Markfergusonuk) January 4, 2016
This is also a rather good point
For all the talk that #Corbyn's court leaks like a sieve, re: actual #reshuffle news, it's been tighter than Tom Watson's grimace at PMQs.
— Daniel Sugarman (@Daniel_Sugarman) January 4, 2016
Updated
Away from the reshuffle (and the focus on the personalities involved), there’s more than enough developing British political and international events for whoever ends up on the Labour front bench to get their teeth into.
Here are some new pieces which we’ve just launched on
Updated
Thrilling stuff indeed. Labour’s Chris Bryant has now weighed in with this important update:
I am now back from the gym.
— Chris Bryant MP (@RhonddaBryant) January 4, 2016
Jeremy Corbyn’s major quandary lies in what to do with Hilary Benn, according to Jim Pickard, the FT’s chief political correspondent.
He writes:
The decision over Mr Benn is a difficult one given his “soft left” credentials and deep support within the Parliamentary Labour party.
“If there is no room for even Hilary Benn in the shadow cabinet, that is pretty alarming,” said one front bench Labour MP.
“The top team needs to be a team — it is not about revenge,” insisted one Labour official. Another said: “The shadow cabinet should reflect the leader, in general terms.”
Updated
Maria Eagle has emerged from her discussion with Jeremy Corbyn, and she wasn’t looking very happy.
The Guardian’s Rowena Mason said that Eagle refused to make any comment to the waiting press pack. She was in there for just over an hour and a half.
"Are you still shadow defence sec?" "No comment" Lobby hacks report unhappy-looking Maria Eagle leaving Corbyn office.
— Political Scrapbook (@PSbook) January 4, 2016
Worth noting that Eagle's meeting with Corbyn was much shorter than Benn's. Could point to her going and him staying.
— George Eaton (@georgeeaton) January 4, 2016
Updated
A few smiles are are being raised at a comment made a little earlier on Channel 4 news by Ken Livingstone, a fixture on the airwaves throughout the day.
"Before 2020 they'll be several reshuffles; some of them caused by death." Ken Livingstone on C4 news. Does he know something we don't?
— Sam Freedman (@Samfr) January 4, 2016
Well, as a line from much earlier in history goes, death is certain... along with taxes
Labour’s defence spokeswoman, Maria Eagle (looking impassive), has just gone in to see Corbyn, the Guardian’s Rowena Mason tells me.
Along with Hilary Benn, Eagle has been widely identified as one of the front bench figures most likely to be in for a move or departure.
One notable flashpoint between the Labour leader and her is the Trident nuclear missile system. She supports its renewal, while while Corbyn opposes it
If she is cut, some party colleagues have suggested that her sister, Angela Eagle, who is Maria’s sister and chair of the National Policy Forum, could also quit the shadow cabinet in protest.
Needless to say, there’s a diversity of views among Labour supporters on Twitter about what should happen to her
It would be unwise to continue with Marie Eagle as Defence Secretary. We've had too many stories of Maria Eagle criticising the Leader.
— Kingsley Abrams (@KingsleyAbrams) January 4, 2016
Corbyn knew from start his views on Defence differed from Maria Eagle's. Ridiculous to sack her in #RevengeReshufle for those reasons
— Sam Donoghue (@SamDonoghue) January 4, 2016
Updated
Ukip, which has been particularly eyeing up Labour-held seats in recent times, is eager to make hay of any disarray in Labour arising from the reshuffle.
Here’s its deputy leader, Paul Nuttall
The man who made his career out of rebellion sacks rebels. Oh the irony! https://t.co/dWcQbmNnsS
— Paul Nuttall (@paulnuttallukip) January 4, 2016
Simon Danczuk under police investigation
One Labour MP certainly doesn’t appear to be featuring in the reshuffle is Simon Danczuk, who is facing a police investigation after a rape allegation was made against him.
The Guardian’s Josh Halliday has filed a piece (read it in full here) on that development from earlier today.
A Lancashire police spokeswoman said on Monday: “We can confirm that we have today received a report of a rape against a 49-year-old man. Inquiries are ongoing.”
It is understood that the allegation is against Danczuk, who has been under mounting pressure after a series of revelations about his private life.
Danczuk declined to comment on the allegation after the statement was made by police. But speaking to reporters earlier in the day, Danczuk said he would cooperate with any police investigation. “I would always cooperate with the police in any regard in any investigation in relation to any issue,” he said.
Danczuk has been MP for Rochdale since 2010 and hit the headlines two years later after exposing Cyril Smith, the late Liberal MP, as a paedophile. He co-wrote a book on Smith and first named him as a child abuser in parliament, months before the police confirmed that the late MP should have been prosecuted over abuse claims.
He has been a prominent campaigner against child abuse in recent years and has also has been a fierce critic of the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn.
Updated
Early evening summary
- Hilary Benn, the shadow foreign secretary, has left Jeremy Corbyn’s office after what may have been the key meeting of the long-awaited Labour reshuffle. Corbyn’s main aim has been to reassert control over party policy in relation to defence and military intervention abroad and some reports at the weekend said that Corbyn had firmly decided to move Benn. In the Syria debate last year Benn proudly defended bombing Islamic State, after Corbyn rejected the idea, and Corbyn wants to ensure that in future the party’s key spokespeople are no longer split so fundamentally on an issue like this. But, according to at least one account, Benn left the meeting in a good mood, fuelling suspicion that he will stay in his post. Benn is liked and respected in the parliamentary party (not always the same thing) and any move against him could trigger a powerful backlash against Corbyn, potentially involving multiple resignations. There has also been speculation that the pro-Trident Maria Eagle will be moved from her post as shadow defence secretary, although Ken Livingstone, a key Corbyn ally, said late this afternoon that it might be possible for Eagle to stay. (See 6.11pm.) Livingstone also said that, overall, the full scale of the reshuffle would be limited. According to one insider, the reshuffle has been taking longer than expected and full details are not expected until tomorrow. Barry Gardiner, the former minister, and Seema Malhotra, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, have both been in to see Corbyn, and it is thought they will be offered a job and a promotion respectively. There are have been reports that Lord Falconer, the shadow justice secretary, will be sacked. One obvious candidate to replace him would be Emily Thornberry, the lawyer and shadow employment minister who is tipped for promotion.
That’s all from me. My colleague Ben Quinn will be taking over now.
Updated
ITV’s Adam Smith says Hilary Benn seemed to be in a good mood after his meeting with Jeremy Corbyn.
Hillary Benn has just left Corbyn's office. He looked in a good mood. "I'm going back to my office" is all he would say #reshuffle
— Adam Smith (@adamtimsmith) January 4, 2016
Lady Royall, the former Labour leader of the Lords, has described Ken Livingstone’s call for Hilary Benn to be sacked as shadow foreign secretary (see 1.48pm) as outrageous.
Jeremy Corbyn begins reshuffle as Ken Livingstone demands Hilary Benn is sacked @PoliticsHome https://t.co/xeOach1aY9 outrageous comment
— Janet Royall (@LabourRoyall) January 4, 2016
Updated
The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg thinks Hilary Benn may stay in his post after all.
Talking to shad cab members it seems less + less likely that Benn will be moved after all.... he's just left his meeting with Corbyn
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) January 4, 2016
Hearing that shadow Local Government and Communities secretary @Jon_Trickett has also gone in.
— Darren McCaffrey (@DMcCaffreySKY) January 4, 2016
Hilary Benn has left Corbyn’s office.
Hilary Benn leaves Corbyn meeting- says "I'm heading back to my office and am not making any comment"
— Rowena Mason (@rowenamason) January 4, 2016
Chris Bryant, the shadow leader of the Commons, seems to be making a point about the reshuffle. Perhaps he’s given up waiting for the call from Jeremy Corbyn.
I'm going to the gym.
— Chris Bryant MP (@RhonddaBryant) January 4, 2016
Gareth Thomas, the Labour MP, former would-be Labour mayoral candidate and a junior minister under Hilary Benn at the Department for International Development, has joined the public “Save Hilary” campaign.
Hoping the excellent @hilarybennmp isn't moved. A great communicator & a lovely man he should be kept in place - did superb work in DFID 2
— Gareth Thomas (@GarethThomasMP) January 4, 2016
Ken Livingstone says scale of the reshuffle will be limited
Ken Livingstone, the former Labour mayor of London and a Corbyn ally, was on BBC News earlier talking about the reshuffle. Here are the key points.
- Livingstone said the scale of the reshuffle would be limited. Asked if people would notice much difference, he replied:
No, it won’t be massively different. There will be some changes. But I think the vast majority of members have fitted in quite well and those shadow cabinet meetings have become quite consensual - a bit like Labour’s NEC [national executive committee].
- He suggested the reshuffle would not conclude tonight.
I have no idea [how long the reshuffle will take]. It will depend on how long all these interviews take. There are still some members of the shadow cabinet away on holiday due back tomorrow or the day after. So I would not hold the programme at 10 o’clock waiting for it.
- He suggested it would be better to have Hilary Benn as shadow environment secretary. On environment issues, Benn and Corbyn were “in complete agreement”, he said. He said there was a problem with Benn staying as shadow foreign secretary because he and Corbyn disagreed on foreign policy. Livingstone said, if he were leader, he would keep Benn in the shadow cabinet.
- He said that Maria Eagle’s future as shadow defence secretary should depend on whether or not she was “open to the facts” and willing to change her mind on Trident. Asked if Eagle was the best person to do the job, Livingstone said he did not know.
If she and Jeremy come to some consensus that there’s an open mind in all this [ie, over Trident], he may very well keep her. I have no way of knowing.
Updated
According to Sky’s Darren McCaffrey, Hilary Benn is meeting Jeremy Corbyn now.
HAPPENING: Crunch time as Hilary Benn is meeting Jeremy Corbyn right now. pic.twitter.com/1zLBixX1s8
— Darren McCaffrey (@DMcCaffreySKY) January 4, 2016
With a reshuffle, the real story is often one happening behind closed doors. Sometimes the details don’t emerge until much later, if at all.
At this point we don’t know what’s going on in Corbyn’s office. But, if public statements are anything to go by, the key drama in the reshuffle is whether or not to move Hilary Benn.
Those speaking out publicly in defence of Benn have included Pat McFadden (see 9.09am) and Jamie Reed (see 5.10pm.)
Now Jon Lansman has taken to Twitter to make the case for Benn being moved. Lansman is a key ally of Corbyn’s and the founder of Momentum, the new organisation for Corbyn suppporters.
What exactly is the case for having a shadow foreign sec whose position on going to war in Syria is supported by <29% of PLP?
— Jon Lansman (@jonlansman) January 4, 2016
Updated
This is from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.
Senior labour figure on reshuffle, 'this is a total disaster'..on Benn 'there will have to be a climbdown or carnage'
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) January 4, 2016
Harriet Harman, the former Labour deputy leader, has repeated her call for a rule change to stop the party having an all-male leadership. This is what she said in a Newsnight interview being broadcast tonight.
We can’t have a men-only leadership when we are party for women and equality. Women expect to see men and women working together and we can’t have an all-male leadership again and therefore we need to change the rules.
The Labour MP Jess Phillips told the same programme that Jeremy Corbyn was guilty of “low-level non-violent misogyny” when he failed to give any of the top jobs when he appointed his first shadow cabinet in September.
(Corbyn’s allies would respond by saying that, for the first time, a majority of shadow cabinet posts went to women and that Angela Eagle deputises for him at PMQs.)
Jamie Reed, who resigned from the Labour front bench on the day Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader, has written an article for the New Statesman urging Corbyn not to move Hilary Benn. Reed says that when Labour MPs applauded Benn’s speech in the Syria debate, they were clapping because Benn was delivering a message clearly and showing leadership. Corbyn should learn from this, Reed says.
Jeremy Corbyn’s limited ability to communicate, and that of those around him, is causing serious, traumatic damage to the Labour Party. Not only is it leading to the party being framed in the most abject way, but is giving rise to events which the leadership team then in turn struggles to respond to ...
At meetings of the PLP I have attended where Jeremy has been present, he has consistently refused to answer questions put to him by colleagues. Again, his prerogative. Again, it’s rational to point out – particularly in this age of micro-mass communication – that refusing to engage with or answer difficult questions sends out its own message and it defines the medium through which that message is given.
Since becoming leader of the Labour Party, there are literally scores of examples of where and how Jeremy should have communicated more effectively (national anthem, response to the Paris atrocities, women in the shadow cabinet, “no place to hide” for Labour MPs) and where his failure – some claim refusal – to do so has damaged the party severely.
A Labour source from the Corbynite left has been in touch to claim that, if Hilary Benn and Maria Eagle get moved, the unions will not be happy. He believes that Jeremy Corbyn only appointed them in the first place as a quid pro quo with his trade union supporters. The unions did not want John McDonnell as shadow chancellor, the source claims, but they agreed to the appointment on condition that the defence and foreign affairs posts would go to people unlikely to back policies that would disrupt the arms industry.
Hilary Benn, the shadow foreign secretary, still hasn’t heard from Jeremy Corbyn, I’m told.
There’s good news for hacks on the Jeremy Corbyn reshuffle doorstep.
Amazing. Unknown knight in shining armour comes to deliver chocolates to waiting journos @tamcohen #reshuffle pic.twitter.com/EZbkchKQeq
— Sophy Ridge (@SophyRidgeSky) January 4, 2016
Is Labour responsible? If so, those who have criticised Jeremy Corbyn’s media operation may have to reconsider. Reporters are simple folk and, if you want them to be nice to you, it never does any harm laying on food ....
Robert Harris, the novelist and former political journalist, thinks Jeremy Corbyn and his colleagues are wasting their time.
The very definition of futility: a shadow cabinet "reshuffle" of people doing imaginary jobs in a future government that will never exist.
— Robert Harris (@Robert___Harris) January 4, 2016
As you might guess, he’s not a Corbynista.
UPDATE:
I remember Tony Blair refused even to list his shadow cabinet positions in Who's Who; he thought they were meaningless
— Robert Harris (@Robert___Harris) January 4, 2016
Updated
The New Statesman’s Stephen Bush also thinks Lord Falconer, the shadow justice secretary (and arch Blairite - they were former flatmates, and Falconer only became a cabinet minister because Blair made him a peer) is on his way out.
Hearing that Charlie Falconer may be heading for the exit.... https://t.co/Aq9kBU7wcC
— Stephen Bush (@stephenkb) January 4, 2016
The departure of Falconer would be no great surprise. It is not just that he’s a Blairite; it’s the fact that he has been more open than almost anyone about that fact that he does not agree with Corbyn. In one remarkable interview in September, he managed to contradict his boss on 12 points - which is quite possibly a record for anyone serving in a cabinet or a shadow cabinet post.
Updated
The Sun’s Steve Hawkes has heard that Hilary Benn might stay as shadow foreign secretary.
Hearing Hilary Benn could stay - but Lord Falconer could go - in the beautifully planned and seamlessly executed Reshuffle...
— steve hawkes (@steve_hawkes) January 4, 2016
Team Corbyn need to work on their jokes.
So when's the reshuffle? Jeremy Corbyn's spokesperson: "What reshuffle?"
— Darren McCaffrey (@DMcCaffreySKY) January 4, 2016
Seema Malhotra, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, has had her chat with Jeremy Corbyn.
Seema Malhotra emerges from Corbyn office. Tells us nothing.
— Ross Hawkins (@rosschawkins) January 4, 2016
Hilary Benn is sitting in his Commons office, still waiting for The Call. He knows he'll meet Corbyn this afternoon but not when #reshuffle
— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) January 4, 2016
Barry Gardiner, who is currently a shadow environment minister, declined to say whether he had been offered a new job after leaving Jeremy Corbyn’s office with a smile on his face. He told my colleague Rajeev Syal.
A lot of people come in and out of his office with a smile on their face. I don’t think I’ll be the only one today. You shouldn’t read to much in to that. I think I’ve probably said enough.
Updated
Sadiq Khan, the Labour candidate for London mayor, was announcing details of his plans to freeze London fares for four years.
.@SadiqKhan: I'll fund four-year fare freeze by scrapping vanity projects https://t.co/vfSw6GiDeD pic.twitter.com/7NBOVvbpRA
— Evening Standard (@standardnews) January 4, 2016
I'll introduce a one hour bus ticket, so you’re not penalised for changing bus. #FareRises https://t.co/MMnfk3dts2 pic.twitter.com/CXKrGNnkuB
— Sadiq Khan MP (@SadiqKhan) January 4, 2016
Some Labour figures on Twitter are saying it was a mistake to start the reshuffle on the same day. This is from Lance Price, Labour’s head of communications for a time when Tony Blair was prime minister.
Inept as ever. Let reshuffle speculation fill the media vacuum over the hols then knock a good rail fares story off the news on 1st day back
— Lance Price (@mrlanceprice) January 4, 2016
This is from Matt Forde, the comedian and another former Labour staffer.
Jeremy Corbyn is of course entitled to reshuffle his frontbench. But the timing of it and the briefing of it has already been a total mess.
— Matt Forde (@mattforde) January 4, 2016
And this is from Theo Bertram, a former aide to Blair and Gordon Brown.
Party staff right now: "YOU SAID TODAY IS TRAINS! Leader photocall 7am. Everyone does trains. I got up at 5am." https://t.co/ajFJmGPWAb
— Theo Bertram (@theobertram) January 4, 2016
We had a grid in my day. Simple idea: coordinate one big story a day. Today is trains. It's trains. TRAINS. GODDAM YOU ALL I WAS UP AT 5!
— Theo Bertram (@theobertram) January 4, 2016
Updated
Barry Gardiner has come out of Jeremy Corbyn’s office.
Barry Gardiner doesn't deny he's been promoted as he leaves Corbyn office with smile on his face. Chortles.
— Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) January 4, 2016
Barry Gardiner just chuckles happily as he's asked if Jeremy Corbyn gave him a new job
— Rowena Mason (@rowenamason) January 4, 2016
Updated
Top banter coming from Corbyn's office: "if your name is not on the list you're not coming in". #bantz #TheReshuffle
— Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) January 4, 2016
The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg has been told Hilary Benn may refuse to accept an alternative post to the one he’s got, shadow foreign secretary.
One of shad cabinet tells me Hilary Benn would be likely to walk rather than accept different job, and that would 'trigger a domino effect'
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) January 4, 2016
No need for a Barry Gardiner profile yet. McCaffrey’s Sky colleague Sophy Ridge has an alternative explanation for his presence on the stairs.
The latest MP seen going into Jeremy Corbyn's office is @BarryGardiner (which may be because his office is nearby...)
— Sophy Ridge (@SophyRidgeSky) January 4, 2016
But she is has not ruled out Gardiner getting a job.
Could @BarryGardiner - Miliband's special envoy on climate change - be going to DECC as @lisanandy moves to Shadow Defence brief? #reshuffle
— Sophy Ridge (@SophyRidgeSky) January 4, 2016
Updated
Barry Gardiner is heading for Jeremy Corbyn’s office, Sky’s Darren McCaffrey reports.
Barry Gardiner MP has ascended the stairs towards Corbyn's office - is he in line for a job?
— Darren McCaffrey (@DMcCaffreySKY) January 4, 2016
Gardiner, MP for Brent North, was a junior minister in the final years of Tony Blair’s government. He was sacked when Gordon Brown became prime minister, but Brown did appoint him as a forestry envoy.
There is now an aide on journo patrol outside Jeremy Corbyn’s office.
NEW: Labour have now actually placed someone on the stairwell to make sure that no journalists are hanging around outside Corbyn's office.
— Darren McCaffrey (@DMcCaffreySKY) January 4, 2016
The press pack monitoring the reshuffle are now standing now far from Wes Streeting’s office in the Commons.
Half the lobby seems to be camped at the end of my corridor (underneath Leader). 111 has a plentiful supply of @peterkyle's Diet Coke, guys!
— Wes Streeting MP (@wesstreeting) January 4, 2016
Someone near the top of Labour is advising me to be sceptical of the latest New Statesman reshuffle reports. (See 2.38pm.) So perhaps Michael Dugher will be safe after all.
Corbynite humour: Kevin Slocombe eyeing hacks: "It's like a picket line". Seumas Milne: "We do like a picket line!" And reshuffle begins!
— Joe Murphy (@JoeMurphyLondon) January 4, 2016
Corbyn asks reporters not to loiter outside his office
Jeremy Corbyn has now asked the reporters to move on. They were standing outside the door to his suite of offices at Norman Shaw South.
This is from Sky’s Sophy Ridge.
Jeremy Corbyn has just asked us to leave: "Do you mind not hanging out outside my office door?"
— Sophy Ridge (@SophyRidgeSky) January 4, 2016
This is from Sky’s Darren McCaffrey.
EXACT Corbyn quote to us: 'Excuse me guys do you mind not hanging around outside my office door, could you all leave please.'
— Darren McCaffrey (@DMcCaffreySKY) January 4, 2016
This is from the BBC’s Vicki Young.
We've been moved on by Mr Corbyn #reshuffle
— Vicki Young (@VickiYoung01) January 4, 2016
This is from the Sun’s Harry Cole.
Oh my. Corbyn himself comes out of oppo leader's to demand journalists leave the corridor while he conducts reshuffle. Full on teacher mode.
— Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) January 4, 2016
It was more in sorrow than anger.
— Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) January 4, 2016
The last time Jeremy Corbyn conducted a reshuffle journalists were able to eavesdrop at the door. Sky’s Darren McCaffrey wrote a terrific blog giving a call-by-call account of how people were offered jobs by phone.
But this time, sadly, it’s a bit different.
Several journalists standing on stairwell outside Jeremy Corbyn's offices. Sadly 3 doors between us and them. #reshuffle
— Vicki Young (@VickiYoung01) January 4, 2016
In September, the reshuffle was being organised from the Labour whips’ office in the Commons and lobby journalists can stand in the corridor outside (although they are not supposed to put their ear to the door). This time, the key meetings are taking place in Corbyn’s suite of offices in Norman Shaw South, a building on the parliamentary estate.
Updated
Rosie Winterton, the chief whip who helped orchestrate Jeremy Corbyn’s first appointments in September, went into his office at 2.30pm, my colleague Rowena Mason reports.
According to the New Statesman, Michael Dugher, the shadow culture secretary, will be sacked in the reshuffle. Stephen Bush and George Eaton are also saying that Emily Thornberry is expected to replace Hilary Benn as shadow foreign secretary and that Lisa Nandy, the shadow energy secretary, is a possible for shadow defence secretary because she is sceptical about Trident.
John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, has been seen heading towards Jeremy Corbyn’s office on Monday this afternoon, as has Seema Malhotra, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, my colleague Rowena Mason reports.
Jeremy Corbyn’s meeting with Rosie Winterton, the Labour chief whip, is due at 2.30pm, but his aides are meeting now, the FT’s Jim Pickard says.
All of Corbyn's top aides are gathering with him for 2pm crunch meeting re reshuffle. He seems to have begun New Year in a jolly mood.
— Jim Pickard (@PickardJE) January 4, 2016
Lunchtime summary
- Jeremy Corbyn has started the process of reshuffling his shadow cabinet, with some shadow ministers being called in for talks with him starting this afternoon at 2.30pm. Rosie Winterton, the chief whip, has been summoned to join him to discuss the plans. No more details are available, and it is still not clear whether he will go for a minimalist shake up, or for a more wide-ranging cull. Diane Abbott, the Corbyn-supporting shadow international development secretary, dismissed suggestions that she might replace Hilary Benn as shadow foreign secretary as “piffle”. (See 12.36pm.) And John Healey, the shadow housing minister, became the latest centrist figure to urge Corbyn not to sack people for disagreeing with him. Healey told BBC News:
Jeremy Corbyn has always valued different views throughout his political career - he did so when he became leader and appointed his shadow cabinet. And it’s important to have those debates and those range of views in the shadow cabinet, and I think he needs a blend of experience and fresh blood and I’d be very surprised if we see the sort of scale of reshuffle that some have speculated on so far.
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David Cameron has condemned a new Islamic State propaganda video as “desperate stuff” from an organisation that is guilty of perpetrating “utterly despicable and ghastly acts”. Speaking on a visit in London to highlight the government’s latest housing plans, and echoing language used by his spokeswoman at this morning’s lobby briefing (see 12.19pm), Cameron said:
It’s desperate stuff from an organisation that really does do the most utterly despicable and ghastly acts and people can see that again today.
But this is an organisation that’s losing territory, it’s losing ground, it’s, I think, increasingly losing anybody’s sympathy, and this again shows what an appalling organisation we’re up against.
- Sir Nicholas Macpherson has announced he is standing down after 10 years as permanent secretary to the Treasury. Macpherson, who once described himself as a mere “faceless bureaucrat”, is one of the most influential unelected figures in Britain and played a key role in the Scottish independence referendum when he took the unusual step of publishing advice saying he was opposed to a currency union with an independent Scotland. Paying tribute to him, George Osborne, the chancellor, said:
To my mind Nick has been one of the outstanding public servants of his generation. He has been at the helm of the Treasury during the most difficult decade of modern economic policy-making and his advice to me has always been intelligent, candid and discreet. He will be sorely missed by the official team he has built up at the Treasury and ministers, like me, lucky enough to have worked with him.
- Corbyn has said that Labour would take action to protect commuters from high rail fares. Speaking at a protest at King’s Cross, when asked what his party wanted to do, he replied:
Immediately to get control of the ticketing system; in the longer run to bring the train operating companies into public ownership so that we can then have control over them.
Claire Perry, the rail minister, said the government had “put a stop to inflation-busting increases in regulated fares until 2020” and that this would “save the average season ticket holder £425 in this parliament”. In London, the Greens announced their own plans to control fares, involving the phased introduction of a flat fares structure.
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Livingstone says a Burnham/Benn job swap 'quite likely'
Ken Livingstone, the former Labour London mayor and a key Corbyn ally, has just been on the World at One. He said he thought it was “quite likely” that Andy Burnham, the shadow home secretary, and Hilary Benn, the shadow foreign secretary, would swap jobs in the shadow cabinet reshuffle.
Ken Livingstone asked on @BBCWorldatOne if Labour reshuffle will see job swap between Andy Burnham and Hilary Benn "That's quite likely"
— Ben Quinn (@BenQuinn75) January 4, 2016
Burnham voted against extending airstrikes against Islamic State (Isis) to Syria last year. He was undecided in the run-up to the debate, but eventually concluded that “the case [for intervention] has not been fully made by the prime minister.” However, he said he would not rule out military intervention in Syria completely.
Livingstone said that Corbyn should move Benn, the shadow foreign secretary who did support air strikes against Isis in Syria.
.@ken4london:"It might very well be the case..that it would be better to move Hilary Benn to something where he's in agreement with Jeremy"
— The World at One (@BBCWorldatOne) January 4, 2016
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Corbyn meeting shadow ministers for reshuffle talks
The Labour reshuffle is on. Jeremy Corbyn is going to start meeting shadow ministers this afternoon.
I understand Jeremy Corbyn will start having initial conversations with Shadow Cabinet members later today about the reshuffle
— Sophy Ridge (@SophyRidgeSky) January 4, 2016
Jeremy Corbyn meeting Shadow Cabinet members to discuss reshuffle later today, but official announcements likely tomorrow (unless they leak)
— Sophy Ridge (@SophyRidgeSky) January 4, 2016
Jeremy Corbyn will have "one on one meetings" with Shadow Cabinet members this afternoon, with reshuffle announcement due tomorrow.
— Kevin Schofield (@PolhomeEditor) January 4, 2016
Some people have been summoned to Corbyn's office this afternoon for reshuffle chats. No journos with their ears to the door this time.
— Conor Pope (@Conorpope) January 4, 2016
Diane Abbott says idea of her becoming shadow foreign secretary is 'piffle'
Some of the reports about Jeremy Corbyn’s planned reshuffle have floated the idea of Diane Abbott, the shadow international development secretary, becoming shadow foreign secretary and Clive Lewis, a shadow energy minister and former Territorial Army officer, becoming shadow defence secretary.
But this morning Abbott and Lewis (who are both Corbyn supporters) have dismissed the speculation.
Speaking on BBC London’s Vanessa Feltz show, Abbott said the idea of her replacing Hilary Benn, the current shadow foreign secretary, was “piffle”. She said:
It’s completely untrue, I’ve never been offered the job of foreign secretary. There was never any question of me being offered it, or of it being debated. It’s just, as they say, poppycock and piffle.
And Lewis said that he did not want to be shadow defence secretary. He said that if Corbyn pressed him to take the job, he would think about it, but he said his inclination would be to say no. As a newly-elected member of parliament, he was not ready for a shadow cabinet job, he told the BBC.
I have been an MP for eight months and I’m already on the shadow front bench. And it’s a steep learning curve, being an MP; an even steeper learning curve being on the shadow front bench. To be on the cabinet it’s another league altogether. So I think I want to pace myself, like most people who come into parliament.
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No 10 lobby briefing - Summary
Here are the main points from the Number 10 lobby briefing.
- Number 10 dismissed the Islamic State (Isis) video as a “propaganda tool” and appeared to reject the Isis claims that the five hostages killed were British spies. Asked about the video, the prime minister’s spokeswoman said:
It serves as a reminder of the barbarity of Daesh (Isis) and what the world faces. It’s also clearly a propaganda tool and should be treated as such.
Asked if the jihadi in the video who seemed to be British had been identified, the spokeswoman said officials were examining the contents of the video and that David Cameron was being kept informed. Asked if the five hostages were British spies, she replied:
You would not expect me to comment on intelligence matters. This does appear to be a propaganda tool and not all Isis propaganda in the past has been true.
- The spokeswoman said the release of the video suggested Isis was being put under pressure.
One of our reflections is that this is a terrorist group that we are seeing being put under pressure with the targeted strikes that have successfully targeted some of the key [elements] of the organisation.
- She rejected claims that the British air strikes against Isis in Syria have been a non-event. She said the RAF had carried out 11 air strikes in Syria since the Commons voted to authorise those attacks, including one on Christmas Day targeting a checkpoint outside Raqqa. But she said a lot of the focus in recent days had been on air strikes against Isis in Iraq. “The RAF has been playing a vital role in the operation in Ramadi,” she said.
- Downing Street defended the government’s decision to engage in bilateral cooperation with Saudi Arabia on certain issues. Asked about the Labour call for cooperation on judicial matters to be suspended (see 10.05am), the spokeswoman said that Cameron believed it was important for Britain to engage with countries and have a relationship with them. Asked about the recent Saudi executions, she said the government “opposes the use of the death penalty in all circumstances”. She said Tobias Ellwood, the Foreign Office minister, had been making this clear.
- The spokeswoman defended the New Year’s Honours list. Cameron was criticised for giving a knighthood to Lynton Crosby, the Australian political consultant who masterminded the Tory election victory. Asked about the honours list, the spokeswoman said:
There is a clear process in place for honours and it was followed in the usual way. The system is there to make sure that many people from different walks of life get recognised.
- The spokeswoman played down a report saying Poland may relax its opposition to Cameron’s plans to stop EU migrants claiming in-work benefits for four years in return for Britain supporting Nato troops being stationed in Poland permanently. “The Poles themselves have come out and [said] that they think their minister was misquoted,” she said.
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I’m just back from the Number 10 lobby briefing. The prime minister’s spokeswoman dismissed the latest Islamic State (Isis) video as “propaganda” and appeared to reject Isis claims that the five hostages killed were British spies.
I will post a full summary shortly.
Simon Danczuk, the Labour MP, has said that the allegations from his ex-wife should not determine his political future. Speaking outside his constituency office in Rochdale, where there was a protest this morning, he said:
It is not for ex-girlfriends or ex-wives to determine who the MP for Rochdale is. It is for the residents of Rochdale to determine who the MP for Rochdale is. I have been very clear about what issues I have addressed personally and I will continue to do so.
Two Labour MPs were discussing the reshuffle on the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire show. Wes Streeting, who is on the right of the party, criticised unnamed figures around Jeremy Corbyn for briefing against colleagues.
[Whatever happens in the reshuffle] I don’t think that can possibly justify the briefing from the top of the party over the Christmas period against people who have had differences with Jeremy, whether it is Hilary Benn over Syria or Maria Eagle over Trident. If leaders want to conduct reshuffles, of course they should. But I think Jeremy should really rein in some of those people around him who are busy briefing against colleagues and undermining the work of opposition.
Streeting also said all the speculation about the reshuffle could damage the party.
We’ve got elections across the country in England, Wales and Scotland which are crucial and I don’t want to see Labour councillors, MSPs, assembly members or mayoral candidates thrown on the scrapheap because we were too busy talking about ourselves, and party structures and personalities, when we should be talking about the issues facing the country.
Clive Lewis, a Corbyn supporter, also complained about anonymous briefing, although he implied that both sides (and Corbynites, and their opponents) were to blame.
I think one of the things that has come out of the last shadow cabinet was, I think, one of the disappointments from many members was that there was so much briefing going on from members of the shadow cabinet across the political spectrum. That’s about discipline. And I think that’s something the party at the moment is suffering a severe lapse of. And that’s not restricted to one wing the party, that goes across the party.
Lewis also said he thought it would be unrealistic to think Corbyn could use a reshuffle to “cull” shadow ministers who did not agree with him.
You can’t have a cull, you can’t have a politburo of a shadow cabinet. It doesn’t work. There aren’t enough people around Jeremy Corbyn to do that. He has to reach out. And he has.
If you look at the initial shadow cabinet, it was a brave, open, inclusive shadow cabinet. I think the shadow cabinet we will have afterwards will also be open and inclusive.
Ken Clarke, the Conservative former chancellor, had some reshuffle advice for Jeremy Corbyn on the Today programme this morning. I’ve taken the quotes from PoliticsHome. Clarke said:
I certainly wouldn’t have one grand reshuffle to entertain everybody and bring things to a head in the next week or two but it looks as though he’s burnt his boats on that. What Margaret [Thatcher] did - she didn’t have quite the same problem, she had people who wouldn’t accept her authority and wanted her to go more slowly - she steadily got rid of them one by one, and she restored authority by bringing other wets – my friends, really – but we were younger ones who accepted her authority.
What John Major did was bringing in all his most bitter critics and the result was his Cabinet simply didn’t function. We were unelectable in 1997 because we fought out a civil war ...
I would try to persuade [people like Hilary Benn and Maria Eagle] to move to some subject where I agreed with them and then persuade them to keep quiet on the things where they don’t. I’m sure David Cameron’s looking on with interest because he faces the same problem: he’s being urged to allow members of the Cabinet to openly campaign against him.
In September 2014 the government signed a memorandum of understanding with Saudi Arabia on judicial cooperation. Andy Slaughter, the shadow minister for human rights, has written an open letter to Michael Gove, the justice secretary, asking for an assurance that this cooperation will not take place. Here’s an extract.
Thus far your department has declined to publish the memorandum but, in response to parliamentary questions tabled by me in October 2015, Dominic Raab confirmed ‘initial exploratory discussions’ have taken place on judicial cooperation with Saudi Arabia and that these are ‘ongoing’ via the British Embassy in Riyadh.
In the light of recent events, in particular the execution on 1 January of 47 Saudi and foreign nationals by beheading at various prison sites in Saudi Arabia, I hope you agree with me that it would be inappropriate at present for the UK to be seen to be cooperating with the Saudi justice system.
Serious concerns have been raised not only about the sentences and the manner in which the executions were carried out but also whether due process has been followed and whether the defendants received a fair trial.
Here is Simon Tisdall’s analysis of the impact of those Saudi executions.
Jeremy Corbyn gave an interview to LBC this morning. He would not discuss his planned reshuffle, but he explained why he was protesting about rail fare increases today. Labour would nationalise the railways, he said. In the meantime, he urged the government to keep rail fares affordable. He told the programme:
Railways are becoming less and less affordable for lots of people. Many that have brought property or moved to either suburbs of London or further away, or the suburbs of any of our major cities [and] moved further out, are then stuck with very high fares to get in and out of work. If it goes on like this then people go back to road transport, we go back to greater congestion. The railways are a sustainable, good form of transport and they should be affordable for all.
We have the most expensive railways in Europe, and some of them are publicly owned but unfortunately not by the British public, they are owned by the Dutch and the French and the German public. What we want is the train operating companies brought into public ownership as their franchises expire. But in the meantime we want the Department of Transport to get hold of the fare structure so that commuting is affordable, so that railways are affordable.
Here are two tweets about the Labour campaign.
End the #RailRipOff. Labour will put passengers first & bring rail into public ownership https://t.co/WmbOOVQt1d pic.twitter.com/hlMqb6kz0k
— The Labour Party (@UKLabour) January 4, 2016
Our railways should deliver what's best for passengers, not max profit to owners https://t.co/WmbOOVQt1d #RailRipOff pic.twitter.com/UpZyT5wHHB
— The Labour Party (@UKLabour) January 4, 2016
At the protest this morning about rail fare increases Jeremy Corbyn not only refused to answer questions about the forthcoming reshuffle; he also sidestepped questions about the new Islamic State propaganda video that seems to feature a British jihadi. This is from the Press Association’s report.
Asked what he made of the video and what should be done about it, Corbyn said: “I’m talking about railways this morning.”
Told it was a vital issue of security, he said: “I’ll come to you in a moment on that.”
When he was asked again he said: “I’ll do it in a moment,” before walking away.
Happy New Year everyone.
The House of Commons does not return until tomorrow, but already Westminster is awash with speculation about the forthcoming Labour shadow cabinet reshuffle. In fact, there was been repeated speculation about it in the papers over the last two weeks. The broad intention is clear; Jeremy Corbyn wants to ensure that his top team speaks with one voice on matters of defence and foreign military intervention, and that means that Hilary Benn, the shadow foreign secretary who enthusiastically defended bombing Islamic State in Syria in the same debate in which Corbyn opposed it, and Maria Eagle, the pro-Trident shadow defence secretary, are set to be moved. But it seems that the full scale of the reshuffle has yet to be resolved. Will it be relatively gentle, limited in scope and with Benn and Eagle retained in senior positions? Or will it be aggressive, with a broad tranche of centrist and rightwing shadow ministers sacked and replaced by Corbyn accolytes?
Here is Frances Perraudin’s overnight story on Corbyn’s plans.
On the Westminster Hour last night, Pat McFadden, the shadow Europe minister, became the latest Labour MP to warn Corbyn to think twice before embarking on what the press are already calling a “revenge reshuffle”. He said there was no doubt about Benn and Eagle’s competence. And he went on:
If it’s about political disagreement, I think you have to pause here - especially if it’s about the Syria vote that took place last month because this was on a one-line whip, it was not on a three-line whip.
Also if you look at Jeremy Corbyn’s own record, his whole career is based on disagreeing with party leaders so I think there is a danger for him in this, in carrying out a reshuffle as a punishment for shadow minister who disagree with him.
He has talked of an open, pluralist kind of politics but a reshuffle for that reason could end looking more petty and divisive than open and pluralist politics. I think that is a risk for him if he proceeds for that reason.
Corbyn himself has been out in public this morning, attending a protest about rail fare increases. But he has not been answering questions about the reshuffle.
Jeremy Corbyn protesting about rail fares at Kings X. He is refusing to answer questions on Isis and the reshuffle pic.twitter.com/M0jBkNDVbB
— Arj Singh (@singharj) January 4, 2016
I will be covering more on this story as it develops.
The diary is relatively thin today, but I will be covering the 11am Number 10 lobby briefing.
As usual, I will also be covering breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web. I will post a summary at lunchtime and another in the afternoon.
If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
I try to monitor the comments BTL but normally I find it impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer direct questions, although sometimes I miss them or don’t have time. Alternatively you could post a question to me on Twitter.
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