UK Labour forced reshuffle/ leadership challenge thread

[jwl]

Jeremy Corbyn unveils new top team after resignations

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has announced a new cabinet following a wave of resignations in protest at his leadership and amid calls to resign.
He lost 12 of his shadow cabinet on Sunday, another on Monday, and several shadow ministers. Most criticised his EU referendum campaign input.
Mr Corbyn said he regretted the walkouts but pledged to stand in any new leadership election.
Labour MPs are due to discuss a no confidence motion against Mr Corbyn.
Many of the party's MPs have been critical of Mr Corbyn's leadership since his election in September, when he won a landslide victory despite starting the contest as a rank outsider.
'Lacklustre role'
The shadow cabinet shake-up sees Emily Thornberry - who on Sunday gave her backing to Mr Corbyn - moved from shadow defence secretary to shadow foreign secretary, replacing Hilary Benn who was sacked at the weekend.
Meanwhile, Diane Abbott - an ally of the Labour leader - has been promoted from shadow international development secretary to shadow health secretary, a position vacated by Heidi Alexander's resignation.
The new appointments include:
Shadow foreign secretary - Emily Thornberry
Shadow health secretary - Diane Abbott
Shadow education secretary - Pat Glass
Shadow transport secretary - Andy McDonald
Shadow defence secretary - Clive Lewis
Shadow chief secretary to the Treasury - Rebecca Long-Bailey
Shadow international development secretary - Kate Osamor
Shadow environment food and rural affairs secretary - Rachel Maskell
Shadow voter engagement and youth affairs - Cat Smith
Shadow Northern Ireland secretary - Dave Anderson
The latest frontbench resignations came on Monday, by shadow Welsh secretary Nia Griffiths, shadow foreign minister Diana Johnson, shadow civil society minister Anna Turley and shadow defence minister Toby Perkins,.
Wayne David, the shadow Cabinet Office, Scotland and justice minister, has also quit, along with shadow consumer affairs and science minister Yvonne Fovargue and shadow environment minister Alex Cunningham.
Several shadow ministerial aides have also stepped down, including Stephen Kinnock, Neil Coyle and Jess Phillips.
Follow the latest developments on our live page
Who's who in the shadow cabinet
Laura Kuenssberg: Corbyn office 'sabotaged' EU campaign
Hilary Benn sacked from shadow cabinet
The motion of no confidence in Mr Corbyn was submitted by Labour MPs Dame Margaret Hodge and Ann Coffey, and a secret ballot could be held on Tuesday.
Mr Corbyn has said he would fight for his job, warning: "Those who want to change Labour's leadership will have to stand in a democratic election, in which I will be a candidate."
Jeremy CorbynImage copyrightPA
Image caption
Mr Corbyn leaves his home on Monday morning amid a continuing Labour revolt
He also said he had been elected as leader with "an overwhelming mandate for a different kind of politics".
"I am not going to betray the trust of those who voted for me - or the millions of supporters across the country who need Labour to represent them," he added.
"Neither wing of the Tory government has an exit plan. Labour will now ensure that our reform agenda is at the heart of the negotiations that lie ahead.
"One clear message from last Thursday's vote is that millions of people feel shut out of a political and economic system that has let them down and scarred our country with grotesque levels of inequality."
In other developments:
George Osborne has said the UK is ready to face the future "from a position of strength" in a bid to calm markets after the surprise Brexit vote triggered turmoil on Friday
The pound fell in early trading in Asia on Monday, adding to Friday's record one-day decline
Potential Tory leadership contender Boris Johnson says the UK will continue to "intensify" co-operation with the EU following the country's vote to leave
Prime Minister David Cameron will chair the first meeting of the cabinet since the EU referendum result. It is not a political cabinet and Mr Johnson will not be there
The executive of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs is set to meet to draw up the timetable for the Tory leadership contest
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande will hold talks later in Berlin to discuss the fallout of Brexit
Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says Holyrood could try to block the UK's exit from the EU
The House of Commons petitions committee says it is investigating allegations of fraud in connection with a petition calling for a second EU referendum
Former Conservative leader and Brexit campaigner Iain Duncan Smith told the BBC the new prime minister should come from the Leave camp
The mass resignations were triggered by the sacking of shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn, in the early hours of Sunday, after he told Mr Corbyn he had lost confidence in him.
Speaking on Sunday's Andrew Marr Show, Mr Benn - who has ruled out any Labour leadership bid - said Mr Corbyn was "a good and decent man but he is not a leader".
In a parting shot, Mr Bryant warned Mr Corbyn that he was in danger of going down in history as "the man who broke the Labour Party".
In his resignation later, Mr Kinnock, parliamentary aide to shadow business secretary Angela Eagle, said he had reached the conclusion following the EU referendum result that Mr Corbyn was "no longer able to lead our party" and did not have "the requisite skills or experience" to steer Labour through the period ahead.

Media captionDiane Abbott MP: Corbyn coup attempt "is a Westminster game"
But shadow chancellor John McDonnell and shadow cabinet members Andy Burnham, Diane Abbott and Emily Thornberry have all rallied around Mr Corbyn.
Ms Thornberry told the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme that now was not the time for Labour to be "plunged in to turmoil".
"We have to hold our nerve and think very carefully for the sake of the country as to what happens next," she said, and called on the party to "stick behind" the leader.
Mr McDonnell told Sunday's Pienaar's Politics: "Jeremy is not going anywhere and will continue on."
Meanwhile, deputy Labour leader Tom Watson said he was "deeply disappointed" that Mr Benn had been sacked and "equally saddened" by the shadow cabinet resignations.
He said his focus was to "hold the Labour Party together in very turbulent times" and that he would meet Mr Corbyn on Monday to discuss the "way forward".
Those who resigned from Labour's top team on Sunday were:
Lord Falconer, shadow justice secretary
Chris Bryant, shadow leader of the House of Commons
Heidi Alexander, shadow health secretary
Lucy Powell, shadow education secretary
Vernon Coaker, shadow Northern Ireland secretary
Ian Murray, shadow Scottish secretary - and Labour's only MP in Scotland
Kerry McCarthy, shadow environment secretary
Seema Malhotra, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury
Lillian Greenwood, shadow transport secretary
Gloria de Piero, shadow minister for young people and voter registration
Diana Johnson, shadow foreign minister
Anna Turley, shadow civil society minister
Toby Perkins, shadow defence minister
Karl Turner, the shadow attorney general who is not in the shadow cabinet but attends meeting, also quit.
A number of senior trade unionists on Labour's ruling national executive committee rallied in support of Mr Corbyn - including Unite leader Len McCluskey and Dave Ward of the Communication Workers Union.

Media captionHilary Benn tells the BBC's Andrew Marr: Jeremy Corbyn "not a leader"
And more than 200,000 people have signed an online petition backing the Labour leader, who was elected last September in a landslide victory.
The Labour Party campaigned for Remain during the referendum, which saw the UK voting to leave the EU by 52% to 48% on Thursday.
But Mr Corbyn - who has been a long-standing critic of the EU and who is regarded as the most Eurosceptic Labour leader in years - has been accused by some in his party of not making the case for the EU forcefully enough.
Labour Party key players - who's gone?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36632956

[Crazedwraith]

Is that up to date? I think more have resigned by now.

I feel sorry for Corbyn he's had the odds stacked against him the Mps and the Media don't really like him at all. But I don't think the criticisms against him are unfounded either. He's not really led. If you know what I mean?

[Captain Seafort]

*grabs popcorn, sits back to watch the UK's best-known comedy troupe in action*

Is that up to date? I think more have resigned by now.

Indeed. More gaps are popping up faster than Corbyn can plug them. According to the latest from the Beeb, the only ones left are:

Tom Watson (deputy, who's also told Corbyn to pack it in)
Provo-lover (sh Chancellor)
Andy Burnham (sh Home Sec)
Lady Smith (sh Lords leader)
Jon Trickett (sh communities sec)
Jonathon Ashworth (without portfolio)
Lord Bassam (Lords chief whip)
Rosie Winterton (sh chief whip)
Emily Thornberry (new sh foreign sec)
Diane Abbott (new sh health sec)

[Crazedwraith]

And now he's lost a vote of a no-confidence and is still not going. Apparently he doesn't have to?

It's a clusterfuck, this is the moment they should be capitalising on the Tory's confusion. Not outdoing them on it.

[Captain Seafort]

This has been building ever since the lunatics seized control of the asylum last year, and I don't think the Labour Party can survive it. Corbyn will almost certain win the leadership election, and then either the majority of the MPs will quit to form their own party or it will get eviscerated by the Tories and UKIP at the next general election.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Indeed. With Labour MPs voting 172-40 against him, he's pretty much screwed in Parliament, even if he does win the leadership contest again.

I hate to say it Labour, but this is what you get for selecting a leader who voted against his own party over 400 times. When I first voted back in 2010 I never thought I'd see not one but two major political parties be destroyed in the span of barely more than a year.

[Crazedwraith]

Edit: oops wrong thread.

I feel like I understand exactly why they elected Jeremy Corbyn. He's someone actually different and stands for something other than being a slightly watered down Tory party.

Because they can't beat the Tories by being Tories

[Captain Seafort]

Because they can't beat the Tories by being Tories

1997, 2001 and 2005 seem to contradict you.

[Crazedwraith]

Because they can't beat the Tories by being Tories

1997, 2001 and 2005 seem to contradict you.

Fair point. But it hasn't worked so well since then has it.

[Captain Seafort]

Largely because since then its been moving, slowly at first, back towards the old 80s Labour Party Maggie inflicted three drubbings on.

[jwl]

This has been building ever since the lunatics seized control of the asylum last year, and I don't think the Labour Party can survive it. Corbyn will almost certain win the leadership election, and then either the majority of the MPs will quit to form their own party or it will get eviscerated by the Tories and UKIP at the next general election.

Well that depends on an ambiguity in the labour leadership rules. As an ejected labour leader, it is ambiguous to whether he will need 15% of MPs to nominate him again to get on the ballot. If the ruling is against him, he'll need 35 MPs to nominate him, and all his opponents need to stop him is to convince MPs not to nominate him this time. If all but 40 MPs voted a no-confidence against him, six is all it takes.

[madd0ct0r]

Spoiler

Moron mps. One easy interpretation of the northern brexit vote is that a ton of working class voters are disillushioned, have little to loose and are prepared to vote out just to wipe the smiles off the fat contented middle class. Im talking about areas hammered under thatcher, put on life support by blair and brown, only to be hammered again by the reccesion then six years of self imposed austerity while comfortably middle class labour mps talked to their friends in London and drank whine. Spelling intended.

The labour mps are so fucking myopic they honestly believe the way into power is following the tories towards the post-factual populist myth and not giving people want they actually want. A sense of hope and a stake in the future

[Zaune]

Moron mps. One easy interpretation of the northern brexit vote is that a ton of working class voters are disillushioned, have little to loose and are prepared to vote out just to wipe the smiles off the fat contented middle class. Im talking about areas hammered under thatcher, put on life support by blair and brown, only to be hammered again by the reccesion then six years of self imposed austerity while comfortably middle class labour mps talked to their friends in London and drank whine. Spelling intended.

The labour mps are so fucking myopic they honestly believe the way into power is following the tories towards the post-factual populist myth and not giving people want they actually want. A sense of hope and a stake in the future

Well said.

Whether you like Corbyn or not, he's the closest thing we've had to a mainstream left-wing politician in England for decades, and the first Labour leader in a long time to make an effort to offer something other than a watered-down version of Conservative policies. If we let the electoral system be dominated by two parties who only disagree on a few minor details -or what Charlie Stross calls "The Beige Dictatorship"- then what's the point in even having elections?

[Captain Seafort]

Whether you like Corbyn or not, he's the closest thing we've had to a mainstream left-wing politician in England for decades, and the first Labour leader in a long time to make an effort to offer something other than a watered-down version of Conservative policies.

Indeed, and got at the disaster that has wrought. If he continues as Labour leader the next Parliament may well consist of the Tories and a bunch of also-rans squabbling over who gets to be called the official opposition. That would be even worse for democracy than having two major parties differing over details.

[Zaune]

So what exactly do you suggest? If we give the Labour MPs their way we'll end up with some empty suit who doesn't have a thought in their head that wasn't approved by a focus group like Millibland, at which point the party will probably split anyway, or at the very least lose a huge number of members and all their remaining union support.

[Captain Seafort]

So what exactly do you suggest? If we give the Labour MPs their way we'll end up with some empty suit who doesn't have a thought in their head that wasn't approved by a focus group like Millibland, at which point the party will probably split anyway, or at the very least lose a huge number of members and all their remaining union support.

If the Labour MPs had got their way six years ago they would have gone for David Milband, who might very well now be sitting in No. 10, and we wouldn't be having this conversation.

[Starglider]

This is by far the most cheering aspect of the Brexit affair. An unexpected but highly amusing side effect. Perhaps we will see the resurrection of the SDP, which was a group of centre-left who split from the Labour party in 1981, and then migrated over to merge with the LibDems in the course of two elections and one short-lived coalition. Or maybe the centre-left will keep the Labour brand and the far left will spin off into some awful little union-centric party, e.g. the endless minor variations of Trotskyists (constantly splitting up over trivial dogma disputes, naturally) the UK suffered through in the 1970s.

[Crazedwraith]

An... interesting theory on why challenge Corbyn now. The Iraq War is to blame Or at least the inquiry into it.

I don't know enough of Labour's internals to know if this is a crackpot theory or not.

[Zaune]

I can't see it, honestly. Who would be desperate enough to get rid of Corbyn that they'd risk being seen trying to whitewash the great Iraq fuckup?

[jwl]

This is by far the most cheering aspect of the Brexit affair. An unexpected but highly amusing side effect. Perhaps we will see the resurrection of the SDP, which was a group of centre-left who split from the Labour party in 1981, and then migrated over to merge with the LibDems in the course of two elections and one short-lived coalition. Or maybe the centre-left will keep the Labour brand and the far left will spin off into some awful little union-centric party, e.g. the endless minor variations of Trotskyists (constantly splitting up over trivial dogma disputes, naturally) the UK suffered through in the 1970s.

Corbyn thinks that the SDP were the only reason Michael Foot's Labour party lost the election, so he would be a hypocrite if he did a similar thing himself.

[His Divine Shadow]

I really like Jeremy Corbyn, he might be the only british politician I like, a decent human being for once. It's only sad he doesn't wear a cap with the red star like in the comics that parody him.

Blairite fucks I hope you go down burning all the way to the hell that spawned you.

[Dartzap]

Just to add to the comedy of errors, the SNP have asked John Bercow to declare them the official opposition, as according to parliamentary procedure, they currently tick more boxes than Labour!

And considering how much the Tories would like Scotland to simmer down, there's actually a possibility of it happening.

Parallel universes exist, this is the proof.

[His Divine Shadow]

Indeed. With Labour MPs voting 172-40 against him, he's pretty much screwed in Parliament, even if he does win the leadership contest again.

I hate to say it Labour, but this is what you get for selecting a leader who voted against his own party over 400 times. When I first voted back in 2010 I never thought I'd see not one but two major political parties be destroyed in the span of barely more than a year.

This is what labour gets for being a tory-lite party.

[His Divine Shadow]

So the seuquence of events has gone like this
Shadow Cabinet resigned
Triggered a no confidence vote
Talking up a leadership contest
Don't have a candidate to run against Corbyn
Profit?

[Crazedwraith]

Even Cameron's calling on Corbyn to leave. That's totally going to work.