Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Labour MPs 'considering return to Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet but will not swear loyalty' to his leadership

However, Mr Corbyn is seemingly unlikely to make it easier for former rebels to return

Caroline Mortimer
Tuesday 20 September 2016 01:10 BST
Comments
Mr Corbyn is set to be in talks with former shadow cabinet ministers about their return
Mr Corbyn is set to be in talks with former shadow cabinet ministers about their return

Several Labour MPs have suggested privately that they are considering rejoining the Shadow Cabinet after the leadership election but will refuse to swear loyalty to Jeremy Corbyn, it has been reported.

BBC’s Panorama reported that several unnamed MPs who had resigned from Mr Corbyn’s cabinet in June had privately indicated to presenter John Pienaar that they were “contemplating returning to the team but they won’t pledge loyalty to his leadership”.

It comes as Mr Corbyn revealed during an interview with Mumsnet users that he had been holding private discussions with MPs who were contamplating returning.

The summer long battle to oust Mr Corbyn as leader will draw to a close on Saturday when the result of Owen Smith’s challenge is announced right before the start of the Labour party conference in Liverpool.

Mr Corbyn is widely expected to win the contest by a large margin though Mr Smith said he remained hopeful during an interview for the programme.

He said: “All I can say is I know what we are doing in terms of the phone calls we’ve been making, the contacts we’ve been making.

“That is showing this is still evenly balanced and I’m going to keep going right until the last.”

The current leadership crisis was triggered by the mass resignation of most high ranking members of the party in the days following Britain’s vote to leave the European Union.

Two thirds of the shadow cabinet walked out forcing Mr Corbyn double up roles in order to fill them all.

The shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry is currently also shadowing the new Exiting the European Union department and Barry Gardiner is simultaneously shadow Energy and shadow Trade Secretary.

The shadow Home Office minister, Sarah Champion, was the first person to return to the shadow miniserial team in July when she asked Mr Corbyn for her job back.

On the 29th June, when she first resigned, she tweeted that she had to quit because “Jeremy’s position is now untenable if we’re to be effective”.

Others may soon wish to follow her but Mr Corbyn has indicated that he will not make it easy for them.

Speaking ahead of the conference, Mr Corbyn told The Independent he will only consider allowing MPs to elect the Shadow Cabinet if they have the approval of the party’s wider membership.

He said: “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.

Leadership challenger Owen Smith remains optimistic despite widespread predictions of victory for Mr Corbyn

“We have now more than half a million members so I think we need to think about that as well.”

The plan will mean a third of Shadow Cabinet posts would be directly elected by the membership and MPs would choose a further third with the remainder selected by Mr Corbyn himself.

The Labour leader said it was an attempt to “reach out” to the wider party and restore unity after the contest.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in