Labour: A Government in waiting? Getting to know the Shadow Cabinet

Labour: A Government in waiting?

Getting to know the Shadow Cabinet Cicero Group | September 2019

Contents Foreword

2

The Leadership: Corbyn & Watson

4

Economy, Business & Pensions: McDonnell, Long-Bailey, Dowd, Greenwood

6

International Affairs & Defence: Thornberry, Starmer, Gardiner, Griffiths, Carden

9

Social Affairs: Rayner, Ashworth, Keeley, Butler

12

Home Affairs & Justice: Abbott, Burgon, Chakrabarti

15

Transport & Environment: McDonald, Hayman

17

Housing & Local Government & Devolution: Healey, Gwynne

18

Devolved Nations: Laird, Rees, Lloyd

19

Cabinet Office & Parliament: Trickett, Lavery, Vaz, Smith, Brown, Smith, McAvoy

20

Cicero Group

Labour: A Government in waiting? | 1

Foreword Ever since the fateful snap election of 2017 in which the Conservative Party lost its majority, attitudes towards engaging meaningfully with Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party have shifted significantly. With an early general election looking inevitable and the outcome highly unpredictable, an understanding of Corbyn’s Labour is essential.

Through a series of defections and mass whip withdrawals, Boris Johnson now has no working majority. This makes delivering Brexit hard, and any form of day-to-day governing even harder. This is the primary reason why Johnson wants to go back to the country and seek a new mandate from the electorate. However, he knows that this is fraught with risk and there are no guarantees that he will be returned to Downing Street.

And yet, despite the very real possibility of a Labour Government being elected, the meteoric rise of Labour’s left-slate means that many of the key individuals that would form such a Government are relatively unknown. This document is intended to shed some light on these individuals within the Shadow Cabinet, including their backgrounds, key policy priorities, ministerial teams, and level of influence.

There is a complex web of interweaving power structures within the Shadow Cabinet that echoes the dividing lines seen within the Party more broadly. Some, such as Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell derive power and influence from their close personal and political proximity to the leader. Others, such as Deputy Leader Tom Watson are marginalised politically, and recently at odds with the leadership on Brexit but remain influential thanks to formal standing and public profile. Then there are those who are not historically regarded as left-wingers but have established themselves as trusted and valuable members of the Shadow Cabinet while remaining popular with the ‘moderate’ wing of the Party.

There is also a broader question of experience and influence within the Shadow Cabinet.

Much of the front bench is made up of relatively new MPs and long-time backbenchers following the mass resignation of 2016 that saw many of Labour’s more experienced cohort return to the backbenches. In fact, of the 32 people who attend Shadow Cabinet, just nine have prior Ministerial experience and only one (Chief Whip Nick Brown) has experience of serving in Cabinet. By contrast, more than a third were elected to Parliament in 2015 or later, and more than half from 2010 onwards.

As such, this is a Shadow Cabinet that would be largely unfamiliar with operating the machinery of government. In itself, that is nothing new – only a handful of the first Blair Cabinet had any Ministerial experience at all – but it will make enacting the sort of radical change envisaged by the Labour leadership all the more challenging.

We at Cicero hope you find this document valuable in navigating the opposition front bench and familiarising yourself with the men and women who may be at the top of the next Labour Government. It is entirely possible that they will not be the Shadow Cabinet for much longer.

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Labour: A Government in waiting? | 2

The Shadow Cabinet in Figures

32

members attending Shadow Cabinet

56.7 average age

53% male, 47% female

53% entered Parliament in 2010 or later

9

members with previous Ministerial experience (Watson, Smith, McAvoy, Butler, Brown, Healey, Lloyd, Gardiner, Keeley)

Oldest member – Lord McAvoy (75)

Cicero Group

37.5%

1

entered Parliament in 2015 or later

member with previous Cabinet experience (Brown)

Youngest member – Dan Carden MP (32)

Labour: A Government in waiting? | 3

The Leadership Jeremy Corbyn Leader of the Labour Party ‘Comrade Corbyn’ Labour MP for Islington North Assumed office: June 1983 Majority: 33,215 (60.5%)

Policy priorities: A return to socialist values A long-standing socialist backbencher, Jeremy Corbyn admitted himself that standing for the Labour leadership wasn’t his idea, but that of his friends on the left of the party. Nominations poured in from a 36-strong group who wanted an outsider to “broaden the debate” of the leadership contest. He began the contest as a 200-1 outsider, making it onto the ballot paper at the last minute. Corbyn succeeded not only in winning the leadership contest, but riding on an uncompromising anti-austerity message, he succeeded in inspiring swathes of activists, young and old, who had been lost by Labour in the Blair and Brown days.

Corbyn once again shocked political observers when, against all expectations, he narrowed a 20-point polling gap in 2017 to just two points and deprived the Conservatives of their overall majority. The past 18 months have, however, been challenging for Corbyn. Anti-Semitism in the Party has plagued his leadership and was cited as a key reason for a number of Labour MPs leaving the Party to form Change UK. Following a recent Panorama episode that exposed the extent of the problem, such divisions between the leadership and the Parliamentary Party have widened further. Meanwhile the challenge of holding the Party together amidst diverging views on how to handle the Brexit conundrum has at times stretched Party unity to breaking point, particularly in the wake of poor European Parliament election results.

Yet Corbyn still stands a real chance of entering Number 10 at the helm of a Labour Government. The polarising status of the next Conservative leader and likely efforts from backbench MPs to prevent no deal mean a General Election in the near future remains a very real possibility. If he does so, expect Corbyn to take a real interest in international affairs and recasting Britain’s place in the world. While he is passionately committed to an agenda of domestic political reform and radical economic policy, he is unlikely to get too close to the detail. As at present, much of the domestic ‘heavy-lifting’ would likely be done by John McDonnell. Corbyn will want to play to his own strengths and get out around the country, selling his message and rallying the faithful. The demands of office make this challenging, but if we have learned anything over the last four years it is that we should not lightly dismiss Jeremy Corbyn’s chances of succeeding against expectations.

Key Advisers

Political spectrum Left

• Right

Leadership No hope

• •

Front runner Influence

• •

Low

High Business relations

Foe

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Seumas Milne: Director of Strategy and Communications James Schneider: Head of Strategic Communications Andrew Murray: Advisor and Unite Chief of Staff Andrew Fisher: Executive Director of Policy Mary Robertson: Head of Economic Policy Tommy Kane: Political Advisor

Friend

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The Leadership

Tom Watson Deputy Leader & Shadow Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Secretary ‘Leader of the rebel alliance’ Labour MP for West Bromwich East Assumed office: June 2001 Majority: 7,713 (19.7%)

Policy priorities: Regulation of the tech industry Leader of the Brownite rebellion against Tony Blair in 2007, Tom Watson has had a rollercoaster experience since becoming an MP in 2001. He began his career working for the Party in a range of back-office roles. Since his election he has held numerous ministerial and shadow-ministerial roles. Building on his New Statesman award in 2004 as one of the first MPs to utilise blogs (a simpler time), he has made a particularly strong name for himself among the digital, culture and media brief. This was bolstered by his frequent challenges of the Murdoch empire, particularly around the News International phone hacking scandal in 2011.

After a brief respite on the backbenches under the leadership of Ed Miliband, Watson was elected Deputy Leader of the Party in 2015 . In the years since, he has regularly come to blows with the leadership and faced efforts to diminish his own power. In 2019 following defections from Labour to the newly formed Independent Group, he set up a centre-left grouping – the Future Britain Group – to bolster social-democratic thinking within the Party and try to stem the tide of defections from the Party. Indeed, Watson is widely rumoured to have been a major player in preventing around 40 MPs from leaving the Party in the past year.

If Labour goes into Government, despite his role as Deputy Leader, Watson is unlikely to be named Deputy Prime Minister. However, he will remain an influential voice at the top of the Party, especially as a champion of the socialdemocratic wing. Furthermore, as DCMS Secretary, he will have a busy programme of reform to oversee, having made clear his intentions to increase regulation of the tech sector, including social media giants like Facebook and YouTube. As one of the earliest MPs to embrace the social media and digital age, there would be an irony in his becoming the Secretary of State seeking to check the power of these organisations. But if they don’t already know it, and as Tony Blair and Rupert Murdoch have found out in the past, big tech firms will learn that Tom Watson is a politician to be reckoned with.

Key Advisers

Political spectrum Left

Right Leadership

No hope

Front runner Influence

Low

•

Alicia Kennedy: Chief of Staff

•

Danial Adilypour: Political Advisor

•

Sarah Tattum Coombes: Political Advisor

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James Noyes: Policy Advisor

•

Haf Davies: Political Advisor

High Business relations

Foe

Cicero Group

Friend

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Economy, Business & Pensions John McDonnell Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer ‘The power behind the throne’ Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington Assumed office: May 1997 Majority: 18,115 (37.9%)

Policy priorities: Nationalisation; Rebalancing of the economy John McDonnell became a Labour MP in 1997 having spent a lifetime promoting a programme of economic radicalism and in his own words, working to “overthrow” capitalism.

He has attempted to run in numerous leadership elections but was unsuccessful in securing sufficient MP support.

In 2015, he acted as Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign manager prior to being appointed Shadow Chancellor when Corbyn won the leadership.

McDonnell has proven to be a highly effective political operator, striking an accommodating tone with business whilst pushing a more radical message to the Labour Party membership. As such, it can sometimes appear that there are ‘two John McDonnells’: one a socialist firebrand, the other a ‘friendly bank manager’. The difference is largely one of presentation however, as the radical policies he espouses in both guises remain unchanged, but in front of an audience of City executives McDonnell is more likely to emphasise his willingness to engage on the detail and explore ‘alternative ways to achieve the same ends’. Though a long-time friend and ally of Corbyn, rifts between the two have begun to emerge over the past year over the Party’s failure to address issues that continue to cause consternation among the wider public, predominantly anti-Semitism and Brexit.

Whether one agrees with McDonnell’s policy platform or not, he has undoubtedly worked to ensure there is a solid weight of serious economic thinking behind it. He has recruited noted economists to conduct reviews of various policy areas, such as Professor Prem Sikka on regulatory architecture and Professor Guy Standing on Universal Basic Income, while Graham Turner of the consultancy GFC Economics has led work on financing investment. He also recruited Lord Kerslake, former Head of the Civil Service, to conduct a review of the working of HM Treasury. Kerslake now advises the Shadow Cabinet on preparations for government.

If McDonnell becomes Chancellor, he has set his sights on nothing less than a root-and-branch overhaul of the UK’s economic, financial and industrial architecture, from re-nationalisation to re-writing the Treasury Green Book.

He would be Corbyn’s most important lieutenant and exert significant influence across Whitehall. He may not “overthrow” capitalism, but he would certainly seek to remake it in the UK. Key Advisers

Political spectrum Left

Right Leadership

No hope

Front runner Influence

Low

•

Madeleine Williams: Chief of Staff

•

Andrew Whitaker: Head of Strategic Communications

•

Sebastian Bracchitta Corbyn: Politial Advisor

•

Mary Partington: Political Advisor

•

Rory MacQueen: Political Advisor

High Business relations

Foe Cicero Group

Friend Labour: A Government in waiting? | 6

Economy, Business & Pensions

Rebecca Long-Bailey Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy ‘The rising star of the left’ Labour MP for Salford and Eccles Assumed office: May 2015 Majority: 19,132 (40.2%)

Policy priorities: Tackling executive pay; Green New Deal Rebecca Long-Bailey is regarded as one of the most promising members of the new generation on the Labour left. As Shadow Business Secretary, she works closely with the Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell in developing and promoting Labour’s policy platform on issues such as regional growth, industrial strategy and corporate governance reform. These would be priority issues for Long-Bailey if she becomes Business Secretary in the next Labour Government.

Long-Bailey succeeded Hazel Blears as MP for Salford and Eccles in 2015, more than doubling Labour’s majority before increasing it significantly again in 2017. A Corbyn supporter from the outset, she was appointed to the frontbench immediately upon his election as leader, as well as replacing Hilary Benn on Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee. After just over a year in Parliament, Long-Bailey entered the Shadow Cabinet as John McDonnell’s number two in the Shadow Treasury team, before further promotion to the Business brief just 8 months later. In 2017, McDonnell identified Long-Bailey as part of the “next generation of our socialist leadership team”. As such, Long-Bailey – alongside Shadow Minister for Labour, Laura Pidcock - has been touted as a possible replacement upon Corbyn’s eventual resignation as a ‘fresh face’ to continue along the Party’s current trajectory. This LongBailey – Pidcock dynamic will be of critical importance to the future of the Party.

Long-Bailey is a solicitor by profession and practiced at firms including Pinsent Masons and Hill Dickinson, specialising in healthcare, commercial law and commercial property. On her personal website, she is keen to emphasise the work she did on behalf of NHS bodies, as well as her wider early career experience in call centres, a furniture factory and as a postwoman. She says she was born “to the roar of the Stretford End” of Old Trafford football ground, to Irish parents, with her father a Salford dock worker and trade unionist. It is not hard to envisage this backstory being translated into a compelling leadership narrative.

Like her mentor John McDonnell she has cultivated a steady and competent persona. When the question of Labour’s leadership succession comes up, Long-Bailey will almost certainly be a name in the frame.

Key Advisers

Political spectrum Left

Right Leadership

No hope

•

Paul Keenlyside: Political Advisor

•

Huma Huq: Political Advisor

•

Olivia Walsham: Political Advisor

Front runner Influence

Low

High Business relations

Foe

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Friend

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Economy, Business & Pensions

Peter Dowd Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Labour MP for Bootle Assumed office: May 2015 Majority: 36,200 (72%)

Policy priorities: Ending austerity A local political stalwart in the North West, Peter Dowd became an MP having spent over 30 years as a Labour councillor in both Merseyside and Sefton. He acted as Leader of Sefton Council between 2011 and 2015, before he was elected to represent Bootle, the town in which he was born and grew up in.

Dowd is a qualified social worker and has a keen interest in healthcare. His Labour roots run deep, with two great uncles – Simon and Peter Mahon – both previously acting as Labour MPs in the 1960s and 70s.

Sympathetic to the more left-wing views of the new leadership following his election, he was appointed Shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury in 2016 before being promoted to Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury in February 2017. The role covers the broad remit of ‘public expenditure’ across cross-sector strategic planning and spending reviews. As such, he would play a key role in John McDonnell’s plans to end austerity and enact reforms to social security if in Government.

Margaret Greenwood Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Labour MP for Wirral West Assumed office: May 2015 Majority: 5,365 (12.2%)

Policy priorities: Rollback of Universal Credit Margaret Greenwood was responsible for ousting the incumbent Conservative MP, Esther McVey, from her Wirral West seat in 2015. Ironically, they would later go on to oppose each other in the DWP brief, with McVey appointed as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in January 2018, and Greenwood as her Shadow in March 2018.

Shortly after her election, Greenwood was made a Shadow Minister for Work and Pensions, with responsibilities for families, before ascending to the Shadow Secretary of State role. She has played a key role in Labour’s campaign against the roll-out of Universal Credit, which has increased her visibility with Labour supporters. Like many who have held her position, Greenwood focuses primarily on the welfare and employment side of the brief, leaving Shadow Pensions Minister Jack Dromey with day-to-day responsibility for pensions issues. Only on bigger ‘political’ issues arising in the pensions space – such as the WASPI campaign – does Greenwood tend to take a more active involvement. It would be expected that this division of labour would continue in the event Labour moved into Government.

Greenwood isn’t a safe bet to be in any new Labour cabinet. Her majority is also vulnerable, but in Corbyn’s Labour, she is a pragmatic and approachable shadow minister, and willing to proactively engage with a range of stakeholders.

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International Affairs & Defence Emily Thornberry Shadow Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State ‘The unlikely Corbynite’ Labour MP for Islington South and Finsbury Assumed office: May 2005 Majority: 20,263 (42.2%)

Policy priorities: Protecting civilians in conflict; Conflict prevention Emily Thornberry has become one of the most senior and dependable members of Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet. Few would have predicted this turn of events when Corbyn was first elected leader in 2015.

Thornberry was sacked as Shadow Attorney General by Ed Miliband in 2014 over a poorly received Tweet during the Rochester by-election campaign. Corbyn brought her back to the frontbench, initially in a mid-ranking role as part of the Shadow Work and Pensions team. She was quickly promoted to Shadow Defence Secretary in early 2016 and to Shadow Foreign Secretary that summer. Her stature within Corbyn’s top team was further enhanced a year later when she was made Shadow First Secretary of State. In this capacity she occasionally deputises for the leader at PMQs, and has won plaudits for her performances. As Shadow Foreign Secretary, she has spoken of the need to re-vitalise the Foreign Office and re-orientate foreign policy back towards values rather than advancing commercial interests.

Thornberry is Corbyn’s constituency neighbour in Islington and the pair have had a good friendship since she was first elected to Parliament. Though not historically regarded as being on the left of the Party, Thornberry shares Corbyn’s opposition to the Trident nuclear deterrent, was against the Iraq war and voted against the Blair government’s 90-day detention policy. So, while many regard Thornberry an unlikely Corbynite, there is a sound basis for her prominent role in Corbyn’s team, which would make her a trusted and important component of a future Labour government.

More recently, however, she has placed herself somewhat at odds with the leader’s office thanks to some outspoken remarks on the party’s Brexit strategy as she has urged the party to adopt an unequivocally ‘Remain’ position.

Thornberry is one of the bookmakers’ favourites to succeed Corbyn as leader. This reflects the good will she has built up with the Party’s left-leaning activist base through her loyalty to Corbyn, coupled with her roots in the more moderate wing of the Party. As such, she looks a strong potential ‘unity candidate’. Thornberry has a professional background as a barrister, is an effective, plain-speaking media performer and is more than capable of being combative when she needs to be. She is also a woman, which many agree is an essential requirement for Labour’s next leader. She is most definitely one to watch.

Key Advisers

Political spectrum Left

Right Leadership

No hope

•

Damian McBride: Political Advisor (Media)

•

Sophie Traves: Political Advisor (Policy)

Front runner Influence

Low

High Business relations

Foe Cicero Group

Friend Labour: A Government in waiting? | 9

International Affairs & Defence

Keir Starmer Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union ‘The Remainer in Chief’ Labour MP for Holborn and St Pancras Assumed office: May 2015 Majority: 30,509 (51.7%)

Policy priorities: Second referendum (personal, not Party) In just four years in Parliament, Keir Starmer has risen to become one of the most high-profile members of the Shadow Cabinet. Appointed to the shadow front bench months after his election in 2015, and then as Shadow Brexit Secretary in October 2016, he is on to his third Conservative Brexit Secretary – no mean feat when the Labour Brexit position has often been no less divided than that of the Tories.

Despite that division, he has acted as a uniting force for Labour as they weather the Brexit storm. Starmer has brought the legal precision which earned him a successful career as the Director of Public Prosecutions and Head of the Crown Prosecution Service to his Shadow Cabinet role which has lent weight to Labour’s position. This experience also makes Starmer one of the few in the Shadow Cabinet to have held high public office.

He has also been responsible for inflicting some of the most significant Parliamentary Brexit defeats on the Government, for example when he unearthed the archaic ‘humble address’ procedure and forced the Government to publish the Brexit economic impact assessments that David Davis boasted had been put together in “excruciating detail”.

Starmer could be a leadership contender when Corbyn’s tenure comes to an end, with particular appeal to the moderate, social-democratic wing of the Party. While he has remained publicly loyal to the leadership, Corbyn’s inner circle haven’t been best pleased when Starmer has gone unexpectedly off script and been much more supportive of a second referendum than official Labour policy dictated.

If Labour was to go into government with Brexit still a live issue, Starmer would seek to re-open negotiations on the future relationship and push for a permanent customs union and closer relationship with the Single Market. But he also wants any new agreement to be put back to the people with an option to remain, and for Labour to campaign for the latter.

Key Advisers

Political spectrum Left

•

Ben Nunn: Political Advisor

Right Leadership

No hope

Front runner Influence

Low

High Business relations

Foe

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International Affairs & Defence

Barry Gardiner Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade Labour MP for Brent North Assumed office: May 1997 Majority: 17,061 (30.2%)

Policy priorities: Integrated trade and industrial strategy Barry Gardiner is one of the surprise stories of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. A junior Minister in the Blair Government and a middle ranking Shadow Minister under Ed Miliband, Gardiner did not look a strong contender for higher office under Labour’s left-wing new leader. However, like a number of others, he prospered in the aftermath of the mass resignations in June 2016.

Gardiner has been steadfastly loyal to the leadership. He is regularly sent out to do the broadcast rounds and, though occasionally gaffe-prone (never more so than when recorded at an event describing the Party’s ‘six tests’ on Brexit as “b*llocks”), he can be relied on to remain unflappable and go to bat for the leadership.

The man who was once considered a loyal Blairite has reinvented himself as an unlikely Corbynista. While Mr Blair now leads the charge for a second referendum on Brexit, Gardiner has been one of the most consistently sceptical of the case for a so-called People’s Vote.

In addition to his Trade brief, Gardiner has a second role as Shadow Minister for International Climate Change. He has sought to combine these interests, delivering a speech at Greener UK in October 2018 which set out the case for maintenance of high ethical and environmental standards in Britain’s post-Brexit trade policy, which he would seek to implement in office. On customs, he once wrote that maintaining a customs union with Europe would be “deeply unattractive” as an end point, but has since come round to embrace “a new customs union in which the UK would be able to reject any agreement it believed was concluded to its disadvantage.”

Nia Griffiths Shadow Secretary of State for Defence Labour MP for Llanelli Assumed office: May 2005 Majority: 12,024 (29.8%)

Policy priorities: Cyber security charter A long-serving front-bencher, Griffiths served as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Hilary Benn and Harriet Harman in the last Labour Government and was a Shadow Minister for Business and for Wales under Ed Miliband.

Under Corbyn, she was made Shadow Welsh Secretary before promotion to Shadow Secretary of State for Defence.

While she is aligned with Corbyn on domestic issues, Griffiths is at odds with some of his views on defence policy.

She has played a key role in maintaining the Labour Party’s current position on nuclear weapons. She has demanded a “root and branch” review of the way the MoD currently awards defence contracts and called for a “rethink” on the UK’s relations and arms sales to Saudi Arabia. In 2018 she declined to condemn airstrikes in Syria and somewhat contradicted her leader’s past comments on NATO by stating that the organisation is “the cornerstone” of Labour’s defence policy. Were she to become Defence Secretary, Griffiths would represent a strong rebuttal to the notion that Labour is ‘soft’ on defence.

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International Affairs & Defence

Dan Carden Shadow Secretary of State for International Development (Acting) Labour MP for Liverpool Walton Assumed office: June 2017 Majority: 32,551 (77.1%)

Policy priorities: Meeting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Dan Carden was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for International Development in December 2018 following the resignation of predecessor Kate Osamor. He had previously served as a Shadow Minister in the same team.

Regarded as a staunch Corbyn-supporter, Carden is a member of the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs and has risen to increasing prominence as a result of his full-throated attacks on the Conservative Government and the wider austerity agenda. As Shadow International Development Secretary, Carden has emerged as a committed defender of the UK’s international aid budget and has called for the Government to take further actions to support humanitarian causes around the world.

Social Affairs Angela Rayner Shadow Education Secretary Labour MP for Ashton-under-Lyne Assumed office: May 2015 Majority: 11,295 (28.4%)

Policy priorities: National Education Service Angela Rayner has been one of the unexpected stars of Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet and is another to be touted as a possible leadership successor. She is popular with the traditional left of the Party and has bolstered this with a string of significant policy announcements and additions to the manifesto to balance her lack of experience on the front benches.

However, Rayner is not an unquestioning Corbynite and she stirred some angst on the Momentum-wings of the Party when she said in March 2019 that Tony Blair’s interview on the Andrew Marr show was “one of the best interviews I’ve ever seen”. She doubled down on her comment, saying that “all shades of red are needed in our Labour Party to take on this nasty Tory Government”.

As Shadow Education Secretary, she has pioneered some of biggest manifesto pledges of Corbyn’s Labour Party, namely, the National Education Service, modelled after the NHS, which would enable “cradle-to-grave learning that is free at the point of use”. She has also led the call for an extension of the 30 hours free childcare offer to include two-year olds – an attractive policy to encourage working parents back into work.

Despite her centrist links, she remains largely popular with the traditional left and for now, is holding onto the support of the Momentum wings of the Party. She is a pragmatic member of Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet, and willing to engage with different sides of the Party. Rayner also has an inspirational personal backstory, having left school at 16 with no qualifications and a baby already on the way. As her personal website states, “Angela is not an Oxbridge-educated, former Special Adviser, professional politician.” She began her working life as a care worker and entered politics via the trade union movement. If she becomes Education Secretary it would cap an extraordinary personal journey.

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Social Affairs

Dawn Butler Shadow Secretary of State for Women & Equalities Labour MP for Brent Central Assumed office: 2015 (Formely MP for Brent South 2005-2010) Majority: 27,997 (53.6%)

Policy priorities: Expanding equality duties to the public and private sector; Violence Against Women Commissioner Before becoming an MP for the first time in 2005 Butler spent her early career as a GMB Union official and aide to Ken Livingstone. This background made Butler a likely supporter of Corbyn and the new direction Labour has taken under his leadership, though she served as a Minister under Gordon Brown and supported Andy Burnham in the 2015 leadership contest.

In between her two stints as an MP she worked as a magistrate and public speaker. When first elected in 2005 Butler became only the third ever black woman elected to Parliament, and later became the first elected African-Caribbean woman to become a Government Minister in the UK, holding the brief for Young Citizens and Youth Engagement.

Butler has become a trusted member of Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet and can often be seen sitting next to the Leader during PMQs. Her biggest political priority is inequality and she is an active campaigner on women’s rights, racial equality and youth issues. These issues would remain close to Butler’s heart if she returns to Government.

She is an Honorary Vice President of the British Youth Council, was chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Youth Affairs and was made a member of the Children, Schools and Families Select Committee and Vice Chair of the Labour Party with responsibility for Youth during her first spell in Parliament. As Cabinet Office Minister under Gordon Brown, she led the Government’s response to the Youth Citizenship Commission. All of this experience would stand Butler in good stead if she becomes Women and Equalities Secretary in a Corbyn-led Government.

Jon Ashworth Shadow Secretary of State for Health & Social Care Labour and Co-operative MP for Leicester South Assumed office: May 2011 Majority: 26,261 (52.0%)

Policy priorities: Increased funding for the NHS Ashworth is a seasoned operator in the Labour Party. He began his career as a research officer for the Party, before going on to work for Gordon Brown as a Special Adviser first in the Treasury and then at Number 10. He was Head of Party Relations under Ed Miliband before winning the Leicester South by-election in 2011. Ashworth quickly joined the frontbench and became Labour’s Deputy Chair and Shadow Cabinet Office Minister in 2013. Following Jeremy Corbyn’s election as leader, Ashworth became Shadow Minister Without Portfolio.

His profile has grown substantially since being made Shadow Health Secretary in 2016. He has led a series of rallies, committing the Party to “fully funding a rebuilt publicly provided NHS”, as well as reaffirming the Party’s commitment to building a National Care Service. Perhaps his most impactful interventions have come when he has spoken of his personal experiences of growing up with an alcoholic father, which has led to a campaign on greater investment in services to tackle alcoholism and break the cycle of addiction.

Ashworth comes from the moderate wing of the Labour Party, and has been supportive of Tom Watson’s social democratic ‘Future Britain Group’. While Ashworth may not be a close member of Jeremy Corbyn’s inner circle, he is a reliable performer whose experience as a senior adviser in the last Labour Government would be valuable to a future administration.

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Social Affairs

Barbara Keeley Shadow Minister for Mental Health and Social Care Labour MP for Worsley and Eccles South Assumed office: May 2005 Majority: 8,379 (18.4%)

Policy priorities: National Care Service Keeley is one of the less well-known members of the Shadow Cabinet. She started her career in IT as a Systems Engineering Manager for IBM. Since entering politics she has become best known for her focus on improving British social care.

In the last Labour Government Keeley spent time as Assistant Government Whip before being promoted to Deputy Leader of the House of Commons. Since 2010 Keeley has been PPS to the then-Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, Ed Balls, and Shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury, before moving to the Care brief.

Keeley’s main policy interests are social care and improving the quality of life for carers and young carers. She also has an interest in mental health provision, and children’s medical services, particularly the fall in the number of psychiatrists treating children and young people in England. She works closely with the Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell who takes a personal involvement on Labour’s policy to address the social care funding crisis.

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Home Affairs & Justice Diane Abbott Shadow Home Secretary ‘The old-timer’ Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington Assumed office: June 1987 Majority: 35,139 (62.4%)

Policy priorities: Reversing cuts to the police service Recent polling by YouGov put Diane Abbott as the 10th most famous current Labour politician. That is no mean feat in rankings that include Strictly star Ed Balls and Party stalwarts like Dennis Skinner. The same study shows that 83% of the British public have heard of Abbott in some capacity. A closer look at the numbers is slightly less encouraging – 50% of people have a negative opinion of Abbott, and 19% are neutral.

First elected in 1987, Abbott became the UK’s first black woman MP. She established herself on the left of the Party and when Labour was in Government, consistently clashed with Tony Blair over tuition fees, civil liberties and the Iraq war. She now finds herself close to the leadership, a long-standing close ally of Jeremy Corbyn with whom she shares both a history of rebellion and a constituency border. She was one of 36 Labour MPs to nominate him as a leadership candidate in 2015 and was duly appointed as Shadow Secretary of State for International Development and later Shadow Home Secretary.

Abbott is highly influential in the Labour Party in its current form. In the event of a Labour Government, Abbott would hold one of the most senior posts in Cabinet, and interested stakeholders would do well to remember the importance of her role in the leadership and her enduring relationship with Corbyn. She is an active campaigner on race issues and has become the face of the fight-back against ‘trolling’ of women on social media, in particular women of colour. As Home Secretary she would have the perfect platform from which to take real action on this issue, while her wider priority would be on undoing the effects of austerity on the police service.

Key Advisers

Political spectrum Left

Right Leadership

No hope

•

Bell Ribeiro-Addy: Chief of Staff and Political Advisor

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Michael Burke: Parliamentary Advisor

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Rachel Earlington: Press Officer

Front runner Influence

Low

High Business relations

Foe

Cicero Group

Friend

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Home Affairs & Justice

Richard Burgon Shadow Lord Chancellor and Shadow Secretary of State for Justice Labour MP for Leeds East Assumed office: May 2015 Majority: 12,752 (30.8%)

Policy priorities: Improving access to legal aid and early review Richard Burgon entered Parliament in 2015 having previously acted as a trade union lawyer. Burgon is known for being a ‘true believer’ in the Corbyn project and was one of the 36 MPs to nominate him as a candidate in 2015’s leadership election. He holds relatively left-wing views, even by Labour standards, and frequently attacks the Conservative Government for “reckless” privatisation and outsourcing.

As Justice Secretary in a Labour Government, Burgon would prioritise access to justice issues, including by reversing cuts to legal aid. He has been critical of the insurance industry and has backed campaigns by the trade union law firm, Thompsons, to reverse Government reforms to personal injury claims. Though at times a controversial figure, there is no doubt Burgon would be a Justice Secretary operating in sync with his Party leadership.

Shami Chakrabarti Shadow Attorney General for England and Wales and Shadow Advocate General for Northern Ireland Appointed a Life Peer: 2016

Shami Chakrabati was appointed Shadow Attorney General in October 2016, swiftly following her appointment to the House of Lords by Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn. Her appointment to the Lord was the only one made by the Labour leadership in Prime Minister David Cameron’s Resignation Honours.

Chakrabati is noted for having had a prestigious career as a Human Rights lawyer prior to entering Parliament, working as a barrister for the Home Office and as a Director for the organisation Liberty.

As a Director of Liberty, Chakrabati gained a significant public profile as a defender of civil liberties; often publicly criticising the Government’s anti-terror legislation. Before taking up the role as Shadow Attorney General, Chakrabati conducted an inquiry into antisemitism in the Labour Party in 2016.

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Transport & Environment Andy McDonald Shadow Secretary of State for Transport Labour MP for Middlesborough Assumed office: November 2012 Majority: 13,873 (39%)

Policy priorities: Nationalisation of rail McDonald has been the Shadow Secretary of Transport since 2016 and the Member of Parliament for Middlesbrough since November 2012. McDonald has previously sat on the Justice Committee and served as a PPS for Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, PPS for then Shadow Secretary of State for Business Chuka Umunna, and PPS to then Shadow Attorney General Emily Thornberry.

Before his election McDonald was a Serious Injury Solicitor, and a founding member of the Royal British Legion Solicitors Group. In addition, he has served as Chair of The Davidson Trust, which works with children with special needs, and the Teesside Branch of Headway, a brain injuries and carer-support charity.

Increasingly taking up more media responsibilities on behalf of the frontbench, McDonald has been a loyal member of the Shadow Cabinet, although his influence on wider policy is limited. That being said, various infrastructure priorities of a potential Labour Government cut across his brief. Despite ambiguous statements, Labour’s 2017 manifesto commits it to completing HS2 and expanding it into Scotland. This is complemented by broad plans for rail electrification and of course, the planned renationalisation of the railways, of which McDonald will play a key role in concert with John McDonnell.

Sue Hayman Shadow Secretary of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Labour MP for Workington Assumed office: May 2015 Majority: 3,925 (9.4%)

Policy priorities: Clean Air Act Sue Hayman has served on the Corbyn frontbench since his election as leader, first as a Whip and then Shadow Minister for Flooding, before she was appointed to the position of Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in 2017.

Hayman has described her political interests as including tackling the rising cost of living, flood prevention, and supporting access to the arts. She believes that political education in schools and a reduction in the voting age to sixteen are vital to increasing engagement with politics. She has also shown a strong interest in rural issues, being both the Vice-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Rural Business and a vocal critic of hunting.

Most recently she grabbed headlines by declaring that the UK was experiencing an environmental and climate emergency, urging her then-opposite number, Michael Gove to declare the same. With Labour pledging to tackle the climate emergency with a ‘green revolution’ if they get into Government, Hayman could find herself in one of the most significant briefs in Cabinet.

Prior to her election she worked in communications and public affairs, specialising in infrastructure projects at a consultancy firm. She also managed the constituency office of former Gloucester MP Tess Kingham between 1997 and 2001, and then worked for the former Worcester MP Michael Foster until 2005.

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Housing & Local Government Rt Hon John Healey Shadow Secretary of State for Housing Labour MP for Wentworth and Dearne Assumed office: May 1997 Majority: 14,803 (33.7%)

Policy priorities: 100,000 council homes a year Representing Wentworth since 1997, Healey has asserted himself as one of Labour’s safest pairs of hands. Beginning in 1999 when he became Parliamentary Private Secretary to Gordon Brown as Chancellor, he held numerous ministerial roles across the Treasury, Housing and Health before becoming Shadow Housing Secretary under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.

He is passionate about this brief and would become head of a standalone Housing department under a Labour Government. He describes the housing market as “broken”, wants to massively increase building of social homes, end rough sleeping and has even mooted the idea of giving the Bank of England a new target specifically for house price inflation.

He holds a classically Labour background, having worked in communications for a number of charities and trade unions, including the Manufacturing, Science and Finance trade union and Trades Union Congress.

Andrew Gwynne Shadow Secretary of Estate for Communities and Local Government Labour MP for Denton and Reddish Assumed office: May 2005 Majority: 14,077 (35.5%)

Policy priorities: Additional funding to Local Government Andrew Gwynne is best known for confounding sceptics in spearheading the (almost) successful general election campaign of 2017 that many thought doomed to inevitable failure. Not that Labour won the election, but to say he helped Labour beat expectations is to understate the significance of his achievement.

Since his election in 2005, he has run a number of successful Labour campaigns, including various by-elections and the campaign to see Andy Burnham elected as Mayor of Greater Manchester. If Labour is to be returned to Government, expect Gwynne to play a key role in the campaign that gets them there.

Once in office, his day job would be as Communities and Local Government Secretary. In shadowing this role, Gwynne has frequently rallied against Conservative cuts to Local Government, and in office would be expected to work to restore funding levels for councils. At conference last year he launched a planning commission to look at how to give local communities a greater stake in decisions that affect them and he has also announced a green paper on greater devolution in England.

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Devolved Nations Lesley Laird Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland Labour MP for Kirkclady and Cowdenbeath Assumed office: June 2017 Majority: 259 (0.6%)

Elected to represent Gordon Brown’s former seat following a brief period in which the SNP took over what was once a Labour stronghold, Lesley Laird was quickly promoted to the front bench as Labour’s Shadow Scotland Secretary.

One of the few Labour MPs to retake seats in 2017 previously lost to the SNP, Laird holds a slim majority of 259 votes.

Laird continues to act as a councillor on Fife Council, where she previously held the position of deputy leader and had of economy and planning. She was also elected unopposed to the position of Deputy Leader of Scottish Labour.

Were she to become Secretary of State for Scotland, she may find that one of her key duties could be to negotiate with the SNP Scottish Government on the terms of the second independence referendum they seek.

Tony Lloyd Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Labour MP for Rochdale Assumed office: June 1983 Majority: 14,819 (29.6%)

Lloyd has represented numerous constituencies since joining Parliament in 1983. He has been the Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland since March 2018. Under the Blair administration he served as Minister of State for the Foreign Office in 1997-98. Lloyd was one of the few MPs in the Blair years that still defined his political outlook as ‘Old Labour’, consistently rebelling against the whip when he became a backbencher. He was a vocal opponent of the Iraq War, renewing Trident, foundation hospitals, and tuition fees.

A Mancunian, Lloyd has lived in Manchester his whole life, and before his first election to Parliament in 1983 he served as a local borough councillor and a business lecturer at Salford University. He was chosen as the Interim Mayor of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority in May 2015 and was elected as the first Police and Crime Commissioner for Greater Manchester in 2012. If he takes over the Northern Ireland Office, one of the most sensitive roles in Government, Lloyd will need to bring all of his political experience to bear.

Christina Rees Shadow Secretary of State for Wales Labour MP for Neath Assumed office: May 2015 Majority: 12,631 (33.0%)

Christina Rees was elected in 2015 and appointed to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Welsh Secretary in 2017. Rees has one of the lowest profile roles in the Shadow Cabinet and is not widely identified with any particular faction within the party. However she is viewed as a steady and reliable member of the Shadow Cabinet. A barrister by profession, she was a member of the Great Britain Youth Team that completed at the Munich Olympics, represented Wales at squash over 100 times and has a black belt in judo. Foes, take note!

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Cabinet Office & Parliament Jon Trickett Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office & Lord President of the Council Labour MP for Hemsworth Assumed office: February 1996 Majority: 10,174 (22.1%)

Jon Trickett MP is the current Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office, having been appointed to the role in February 2017. He also serves as Shadow Lord President of the Council, a role he has held since June 2016. Trickett has served consistently in the Shadow Cabinet since 2013, remaining in the Labour frontbench throughout Jeremy Corbyn’s tenure as Leader of the Opposition. A committed member of the Labour Left, as a backbencher Trickett rose to prominence due to his staunch opposition towards the Iraq War, as well as the renewal of the Trident Missile System.

He was also against many of Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair’s proposals for public service reform, though early in the New Labour years he served as PPS to Peter Mandelson at the Department for Trade & Industry and later occupied the same role for Gordon Brown as Prime Minister.

Trickett would be a key figure in a Corbyn-led administration, as he currently leads the Shadow Cabinet’s work on preparation for Government. This entails working with the Shadow Cabinet and their teams to create a grid of all the promises Labour has made, in the 2017 manifesto and subsequently, and turning each one into a detailed plan for action. These must be “radical but also deliverable”, in Trickett’s words. This work will inform the first Queen’s Speech, Budget, spending review and other early statements to Parliament of the next Labour Government. His Cabinet Office role will also entail reform of lobbying – he is a staunch critic of the reforms implemented to date – and wider political reform to address the “collapse in confidence in politics itself”.

Ian Lavery Party Chair Labour MP for Wansbeck Assumed office: May 2010 Majority: 10,435 (24.8%)

A former head of the National Union of Miners, Lavery sits to the Left of his Party and has been a vocal supporter of Leader Jeremy Corbyn. However, during the beginning of his time in Parliament, he spent time working for New Labour Stalwart Harriet Harman as her PPS at both DCMS and International Development. Interestingly, during the 2015 Labour Leadership contest, Lavery backed Andy Burnham, although he later said he was thrilled at Jeremy Corbyn’s victory. In addition to his current role, he jointly holds the position of National Elections and Campaign Coordinator with Andrew Gwynne MP. Given his constituency voted to leave in the EU referendum, Lavery has been resistant to his Party supporting a second referendum, calling it “political suicide.”

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Cabinet Office & Parliament

Cat Smith Shadow Minister for Engagement and Youth Affairs Labour MP for Lancaster and Fleetwood Assumed office: May 2015 Majority: 6,661 (14.5%)

Cat Smith is a reasonably young member of the Shadow Cabinet at 33, presumably an obvious factor in her appointment as the Shadow Cabinet Member for Voter Engagement and Youth Affairs. Previously she has also been Minister for Women in the Shadow Equalities Office. Her swift ascent to the Shadow Cabinet could also be attributed to her time as an aide to Jeremy Corbyn before becoming an MP and the fact she was one of the 36 Labour MPs who nominated him for leader in 2015. Despite this she is not considered a core part of his inner circle. Within her role she often champions climate change issues and commended the recent strikes of school children on the topic. She has also championed lowering the voting age to 16.

Valerie Vaz Shadow Leader of the House of Commons Labour MP for Walsall South Assumed office: May 2010 Majority: 8,892 (20.2%)

Valerie Vaz was elected as Labour Member of Parliament for Walsall South in the 2010 General Election. She has been the Shadow Leader of the House of Commons since October 2016. She has kept a relatively low profile since her election to parliament nine years ago.

In 1984 she qualified as a solicitor and subsequently worked on legal issues for Local Government in London. She set up her own law firm, Townsend Vaz Solicitors, and has sat as a Deputy District Judge in the County Court on the Midland and Oxford Circuit. Between 1986 and 1990 Vaz was a Councillor in the London Borough of Ealing and was Deputy Leader in 1988-1989. She stood as a Parliamentary Candidate in Twickenham in 1987 and in the European elections in 1999 in the East Midlands.

Nick Brown Opposition Chief Whip Labour MP for Newcastle upon Tyne East Assumed office: June 1983 Majority: 19,261 (46.3%)

Brown has had long and distinguished career on the Labour frontbenches. An MP for nearly 36 years, he has been the Opposition Chief Whip since 2016. Brown was a close ally of Gordon Brown, and during both Brown and Blair’s administration he earned himself a reputation for being an effective political fixer. However, he also formed an unlikely friendship with Jeremy Corbyn during the New Labour years. Corbyn was a serial backbench rebel at the time, and he used to write notes to Brown who was the then Chief Whip, telling him when he planned to rebel. In recent months, Brown has proven invaluable to the Labour operation, holding the whip largely together against a fractured Conservative Party.

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Cabinet Office & Parliament

Baroness Smith Shadow Leader of the House of Lords Appointed a Life Peer: 2010

Angela Smith was MP for Basildon from 1996-2010, during which time she was PPS to Gordon Brown as Prime Minister from 2007-2009 and a Cabinet Office Minister from 2009-2010.

Animal-lover Baroness Smith is a former head of public affairs for the League Against Cruel Sport, where she remains a Vice President. Smith rose to prominence during the New Labour years, where she held various junior ministerial positions for briefs including HMT, Northern Ireland and Energy.

In her current role as Shadow Leader in the House of Lords, she says that Labour peers have worked tirelessly to hold ministers to account “amid a Brexit debate too often lacking in hard, factual realism.”

Lord Thomas McAvoy Opposition Chief Whip House of Lords Appointed a Life Peer: 2010

A union man through and through, during his time as an MP McAvoy spent a number of years in the elected chamber’s Whips office, described by the BBC as “one of the most powerful figures in the Parliamentary Labour Party.” He started his career as a storeman in a Hoover factory in Cambuslang, later becoming shop steward for the Amalgamated Engineering Union. He remains a member of Unite following numerous union mergers. In tandem with his role in the House of Lords, McAvoy and his wife co-own a pub with one of their four sons.

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Labour: A Government in waiting? | 22