Pat McFadden, the shadow Europe minister under Ed Miliband, has told Jeremy Corbyn’s team he is prepared to remain in the post in light of what he regards as a commitment from the new Labour leader to campaign for Britain to stay in the EU.
McFadden, a passionate pro-European, had been critical of Corbyn’s ambivalence on the issue, saying leadership requires more decisiveness. He appears to have made his decision in principle after conversations with the shadow foreign secretary, Hilary Benn, and Corbyn’s assurances on the subject in a BBC interview on Wednesday evening.
The Europe post is one of the most critical for the party as it tries to sort out its position before the referendum on EU membership due to be held in 2017. There is no guarantee McFadden will keep the role, as Corbyn seems to be switching portfolios at a rapid rate.
A large number of frontbench positions are vacant after a tranche of former frontbenchers quit, saying they could not serve with Corbyn. Some of those have decided to stay on have done so only because they are certain Corbyn will fail but feel they must be loyal to the democratic decisions of the party in the interim. Others believe they cannot be true to their politics if they have to follow the policies set out by Corbyn and his close associate John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor.
The GMB is putting pressure on Corbyn to state that the party’s support for staying in the EU is conditional on David Cameron not negotiating a reduction in British workers’ rights in the EU.
Some MPs believe the GMB is tilting at windmills since Cameron has decided not to succumb to business demands to reduce the role of the EU in labour relations in the UK. Pro-Europe MPs also point out that if the UK did leave the EU, Cameron would be even more free to reduce workers’ rights without needing to seek permission from the EU.
Many shadow ministers are still trying to understand how the Corbyn operation is working, as the new leader draws on staff from Ken Livingstone’s mayoralty, the Public and Commercial Services Union and old Miliband staffers to advise him. He has appointed Neale Coleman as head of policy and rebuttal.
Many senior figures in the Labour headquarters, including in the press operation, have quit or transferred, giving Corbyn room to bring in his own team.
The Corbyn team have denied they are looking to give a policy role to Miliband’s former chief of staff, Tim Livesey, although he has been seen at party headquarters.
Shadow cabinet members were reassured on Wednesday that there would be no attempt to centralise the appointment of special advisers to shadow cabinet members. The Corbyn team said a misunderstanding had led some shadow ministers to misconstrue the new procedure.
In further reshuffle moves, Sarah Champion has been appointed shadow minister for preventing child abuse, reflecting her experience of the issue in her constituency, Rotherham.
Steve Reed has been appointed shadow minister for local government, an important post as the party tries to respond to George Osborne’s Northern Powerhouse initiative. Reed, the MP for Croydon North, has been a long-term advocate of greater devolution, but the position of shadow chancellor McDonnell is less well known. Reed will be working alongside Jon Trickett, the shadow communities secretary.
Senior party figures are still adjusting to the scale of the revolution under way. Jon Cruddas, the head of policy co-ordination under Ed Miliband, said: “The Blairites now can’t understand what’s going on because they are operating within a totally shrunken framework. They woke up to find a party that has totally disappeared in front of them. They don’t know what to do, and now they sound like a sect.”
Cruddas voted for Andy Burnham after much delay. He added: “Labour lost that emotional power of our political project. So we became transactional, instrumentalist, remote, managerial, technocratic, blah blah blah.
“Then Corbyn comes in, with this ethic of principle versus power. He is allowed to put a wedge into the whole leadership thing because we’ve lost the principal ethical contribution which was, actually, the hallmark of the whole New Labour project.”
The former cabinet minister Jack Straw said he feared Corbyn’s election may allow the Liberal Democrats to rise like Lazarus.
Tim Farron, the new Lib Dem leader, said a huge political opportunity had landed in his lap. In an interview with BuzzFeed, he said: “Healthy democracy needs a good, strong, electable, credible opposition with a separate and distinct vision that can buy in from a very large section of the population – and it would appear that Labour isn’t that now. I want us to be that.
“I think there is clearly a very big space in British politics for a party that is progressive, that is moderate, that is responsible, that is electable, and that is liberal – and that’s us. So, yeah, I’m aware of the opportunities we now have and I’m going to grab ’em.”
