Jeremy Corbyn's peace offer to hostile Labour MPs 'will only work with a fully elected Shadow Cabinet'

Wes Streeting MP says effort to unite the party if Mr Corbyn is re-elected as leader requires all positions - including the shadow Chancellor - to be put to vote by MPs

Wes Streeting, Labour MP and former NUS president (Evening Standard)

Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘peace offer’ to Labour MPs only has a chance of working if the leader returns to having an elected Shadow Cabinet, up to and including the position of shadow Chancellor, according to critics on his backbenches.

The Labour leader said a peace offer would be made to his MPs if he were re-elected, to try and bring the party back together to form a credible opposition, that would include some Shadow Cabinet positions appointed via a vote of the party’s MPs, but they would have so accept the ‘direction of travel’ with regard to Mr Corbyn’s anti-austerity economic policies.

Ilford North MP Wes Streeting told The Independent: “What’s hard to swallow is Mr Corbyn on one hand saying, ‘We must come back together,’ but then on the other hand, John McDonnell making inflammatory comments. And a dossier smearing labour MPs being put together in the leader’s office and released to the media.

“And you don’t have to go too far into the realm of criticising Jeremy Corbyn before the likes of Paul Mason pop up and say, ‘They should be deselected.’

Mr Corbyn's rival in the leadership contest, Owen Smith, also dismissed the idea of a peace offer - highlighting a so-called “hit list” drawn up by Mr Corbyn's team, which identified Labour MPs for allegedly abusing the leader and his allies and sparked a formal bullying complaint.

“I want there to be unity in the Labour Party, that's why I'm standing in this contest,” Mr Smith told Channel 4 News.

“But I think it's hard to reconcile the rhetoric about unity from Jeremy's camp with the actions - issuing a deselection list, targeting MPs who do a great job representing constituents,” he added.

Mr Streeting said Labour would struggle to gain economic credibility for as long as Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell remained in his post.

“One of the reasons we lost the election is because people didn’t trust us on the economy. Post-Osborne there is a real opportunity to steer things in a fairer, more progressive direction,” he said.

“But in order to make those arguments you have to have a Shadow Chancellor and a Shadow Treasury team that are credible. John McDonnell has been on camera, two years ago, calling himself a Marxist and welcoming the financial crash. That is not credible.”

But an elected shadow cabinet might persuade senior figures who resigned from posts under Mr Corbyn’s leadership might persuade them to return.

“Recent weeks and months have shown that Corbyn can’t lead an effective opposition without bringing a team back together and filling those vacant posts with more experienced heads,” Mr Streeting said.

“At the moment there are huge gaps in the shadow cabinet. Experienced people like Emily Thornberry, for example, she it trying to cover two big areas, Foreign and Defence, plus Brexit as well.

“Then you’ve got people who are far less experienced, barely in parliament for a year, having to try and take on huge issues - education policy, grammar schools and national security.

“He has to bring everyone back together. There would have to be an elected shadow cabinet. Without an elected shadow cabinet he will struggle to put together a team.”

Mr Corbyn, who is growing an olive tree on his Westminster office balcony, and said he intends to offer branches of it to MPs if he is re-elected, said in an interview with The Guardian:

“I will put it to them that I’ve got a mandate, if I’m elected. I’ll put it to them that the mandate is about the policies I’m trying to put forward.

“Not every dot and comma and crossed t, or whatever. But it is the general direction of the economy and policy. And I’ll invite them to work with us.

“I’ll rely on the best natures that can come out. A lot of people say lots of things in the heat of the moment. But of course I’ve made mistakes, and of course we need to do better. We certainly can’t carry on as we did,” Mr Corbyn added.

The peace deal includes introductions of elections for some shadow cabinet positions and further involvement of grassroots members in policymaking.