Labour members must have say over Shadow Cabinet, Jeremy Corbyn insists

Allowing the party membership to elect Shadow Cabinet positions was labelled ‘deeply divisive’ by Owen Smith, as the Labour leader was forced to deny claims he will use the boundary review to enforce deselection on MPs who have been hostile towards him

Jeremy Corbyn has made clear he will only consider allowing MPs to elect the Shadow Cabinet if the party’s 500,000 members also have a say.

The leader said he was aware that MPs, many of whom have criticised him, want the power to select his front bench.

But Mr Corbyn said giving a say to Labour members, who are expected to overwhelming back him in the contest, must be addressed at the same time by the party’s ruling body at a meeting on Tuesday.

The Labour leader told The Independent: “On Tuesday our national executive meets, we’re going to look at the whole issues of democracy in the party. Yes I’m very well aware of the wish of Labour MPs to have some elections to the Shadow Cabinet. But there’s also the question of representation of party members in decision-making bodies in the party. We have now more than half a million members so I think we need to think about that as well.”

Allowing the party membership to elect Shadow Cabinet positions was labelled “deeply divisive” by Owen Smith, as the Labour leader was forced to deny claims he will use the boundary review to enforce deselection on MPs who have been hostile towards him.

Mr Corbyn said his plans, which would allow the party membership to directly elect a third of the positions in the Shadow Cabinet and the MPs a further third, was an attempt to “reach out” to the wider party and restore unity after the leadership election.

“It’s presented as apparently being a conciliatory gesture by Jeremy. It isn't a conciliatory gesture, it’s not simply an attempt to extend democracy in the Labour Party,” Mr Smith told Sky News.

“It's an attempt to deepen divisions between new members and MPs. It's an attempt to further cement his position and use the membership as a means of driving a wedge between the MPs and his leadership.”

Mr Smith is one of many Labour MPs that have advocated a return to Labour’s old system of the parliamentary party directly electing the Shadow Cabinet, which would prevent Mr Corbyn only selecting MPs who are loyal to him, and also make it easier for senior figures who have left the Shadow Cabinet in protest at Mr Corbyn’s leadership to return.

“If he was serious about trying to unify the party he would be taking serious the notion of going back to the traditional method we have had of guaranteeing that there was some balance in the Shadow Cabinet, and everybody felt in the party that they had some representation, which was election through the PLP [Parliamentary Labour Party],” Mr Smith added. “I’m in favour of us having more democracy in the Labour Party but I don’t think Jeremy and his team can get away with saying that this is all about an olive branch when really and truly it’s about deepening the divisions that he’s created in the party.”

The party membership overwhelmingly backs Mr Corbyn, but 80 per cent of the party’s MPs do not.

The proposals, which include the final third of MPs being chosen by the leader, will be presented to Labour’s National Executive Committee on Tuesday, when a decision could be made on whether they become policy. The committee is balanced in favour of the leader, and recently ruled that his name would be automatically on the ballot for the leadership election, without having to seek nominations from MPs.

Deputy leader Tom Watson will also present plans to reintroduce elections to the Shadow Cabinet, which were scrapped under Jeremy Corbyn.

Meanwhile, MP for Hove, Peter Kyle said he agreed with the claims made in a documentary to be broadcast on Monday night that there was a plot underway by pro-Corbyn activists to deselect him.

The Channel 4 Dispatches program The Battle for the Labour Party will show Mark Sandell, the suspended chairman of Brighton and Hove Labour, saying Mr Kyle had “every good reason to feel nervous” and discussing handing out redundancy notices to MPs.

Mr Kyle said: “There are people who've fought for other parties for their whole lives who’ve now joined in the last few weeks and they’re now trying to beat the Labour Party in a different way, and that’s by getting rid of me.

“So, I have to carry on doing my job, their job seems to be defeating me.”

On Mr Corbyn, he said: “You know, Jeremy is the first person I’ve come across who uses an olive branch as a weapon to beat people with.

“On the same day that they’re holding out an olive branch, they release a list of MPs who they say hate Jeremy. This is not the kind of inclusive leadership that I would expect.”

Shadow Defence Secretary and Corbyn ally Clive Lewis told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show that there would be a “democratic selection” process in Labour seats, prompted by the boundary review, but Mr Corbyn denied this was a threat to MPs who have been hostile to him. “It's not a veiled threat, it’s not a direct threat either, it’s not any kind of threat,” he told ITV’s Peston on Sunday.

“What it is, is simply describing the process. There are going to be 600 new constituency Labour parties formed, as there will be for other parties, and they will go through a selection process.”

Mr Corbyn also did not deny claims in The Mail on Sunday that he had discussed plans to oust deputy leader Tom Watson from his position – which is directly elected by the party membership – as well as Labour General Secretary Iain McNicol.

The Labour leader said the two men were “obviously part” of the discussion he and his close aides were having about the future of the party.

Former acting party leader Margaret Beckett told the BBC there was “no precedent for removing a deputy leader in this or any other way.”

The leadership election will conclude on Saturday, with Mr Corbyn expected to win by an even greater margin than his landslide victory last year.