2020 Labour Leadership Election

[Pericles]

Not that it matters much anymore, but how many of the new Shadow Cabinet represent constituencies that voted to Leave? Given a majority of Labour seats, even after the 2019 election, still voted to Leave, I'd expect it'd be a sizable chunk (Miliband's seat for instance had a 72% Leave vote while he has a 6% majority).

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

So, in terms of BAME representation in the Shadow Cabinet, we have Nandy (Bengali), Lammy (black), Miliband (Jewish), Debbonaire (Tamil), Gill (Sikh), de Cordova (black), Allin-Khan (Pakistani), and Vaz (Goan). Anybody I'm missing?

[Lord Halifax]

So, in terms of BAME representation in the Shadow Cabinet, we have Nandy (Bengali), Lammy (black), Miliband (Jewish), Debbonaire (Tamil), Gill (Sikh), de Cordova (black), Allin-Khan (Pakistani), and Vaz (Goan). Anybody I'm missing?

Jews aren't BAME, certainly not Polish Jews.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

So, in terms of BAME representation in the Shadow Cabinet, we have Nandy (Bengali), Lammy (black), Miliband (Jewish), Debbonaire (Tamil), Gill (Sikh), de Cordova (black), Allin-Khan (Pakistani), and Vaz (Goan). Anybody I'm missing?

Jews aren't BAME, certainly not Polish Jews.

I don't know the exact definition of the term; I just know that Jews are perceived as more of "a minority" in Britain than in the US. My mistake.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Ed Miliband, Shadow Business, Energy and Industrial Secretary

That's terrible news for Ed Miliband.

[Antonio the Sixth]

So, plenty of familiar faces (RED ED IS BACK, BABY) but lots of new ones too, with the most obnoxious Corbyn orbiters sent into exile but not much in the way of blatant ideological/factional slant otherwise?

Yeah, I love how non-offensive this selection is. Seems like he's shunned anybody, left or right, who'd be anything other than serious & professional at all times (Jess Phillips & Clive Lewis, for example).

Seriously though, this is great news. It's exactly what I hoped from a Starmer leadership, and I hope this is the tone he can strike throughout the coming years.

[EastAnglianLefty]

So, plenty of familiar faces (RED ED IS BACK, BABY) but lots of new ones too, with the most obnoxious Corbyn orbiters sent into exile but not much in the way of blatant ideological/factional slant otherwise?

There is a bit of a factional slant, but given that it's in favour of the 'soft left', who sit broadly at the middle of the party and are generally known for not being hardcore factionalists, that pattern is suffused within the broader pattern of picking a collegial team.

That said, it's not a unity cabinet in the sense of giving everybody a seat at the table. It's a unity cabinet in the sense that people who can't play nicely with each other have been sent out into the cold.

[Blair]

So, plenty of familiar faces (RED ED IS BACK, BABY) but lots of new ones too, with the most obnoxious Corbyn orbiters sent into exile but not much in the way of blatant ideological/factional slant otherwise?

There is a bit of a factional slant, but given that it's in favour of the 'soft left', who sit broadly at the middle of the party and are generally known for not being hardcore factionalists, that pattern is suffused within the broader pattern of picking a collegial team.

That said, it's not a unity cabinet in the sense of giving everybody a seat at the table. It's a unity cabinet in the sense that people who can't play nicely with each other have been sent out into the cold.

The worst elements of both the Miliband years & the Corbyn years were when the Shadow Cabinet was 'balanced' purely to achieve a 'broad church' because you had people who hated each other, who actively used it to pursue their own bids and enchance their ego whilst keeping people who were awful at their jobs.

Of course my favourite moment was seeing people shocked that Starmer would sack Burgon & Butler; with some grifters saying 'well I know loads of people who voted for Ker but they're going to leave now he's purged us'- it's like come on guys, we always knew the two centre points were insititional change (anti-semitism) and competent opposition.

[CumbrianLefty]

As already said, Butler is a bit more surprising than Burgon. Anybody genuinely shocked that the latter got the chop, though, has a wallet that is ready for inspection by anybody at all times.

(even more so, those loudly proclaiming they are leaving Labour to join Galloway's new "party")

[EastAnglianLefty]

As already said, Butler is a bit more surprising than Burgon. Anybody genuinely shocked that the latter got the chop, though, has a wallet that is ready for inspection by anybody at all times.

(even more so, those loudly proclaiming they are leaving Labour to join Galloway's new "party")

Let us devoutly hope they do so. Makes it much easier to stop them rejoining in future.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

So, in terms of BAME representation in the Shadow Cabinet, we have Nandy (Bengali), Lammy (black), Miliband (Jewish), Debbonaire (Tamil), Gill (Sikh), de Cordova (black), Allin-Khan (Pakistani), and Vaz (Goan). Anybody I'm missing?

Jews aren't BAME, certainly not Polish Jews.

I don't know the exact definition of the term; I just know that Jews are perceived as more of "a minority" in Britain than in the US. My mistake.

In the context of the post-Corbyn Labour Party, I think we can be pretty sure that Jews qualify as 'a minority group' in all relevant 'political' senses.

[CumbrianLefty]

As already said, Butler is a bit more surprising than Burgon. Anybody genuinely shocked that the latter got the chop, though, has a wallet that is ready for inspection by anybody at all times.

(even more so, those loudly proclaiming they are leaving Labour to join Galloway's new "party")

Let us devoutly hope they do so. Makes it much easier to stop them rejoining in future.

Well yes, in many cases they are no great loss anyway - the worst "rEiNsTaTe WaLkEr AnD wIlLiAmSoN nOw !!!!??!!!111!!!" type cranks who slip seamlessly into "Starmer is doing Israel's orders".

[Blair]

As already said, Butler is a bit more surprising than Burgon. Anybody genuinely shocked that the latter got the chop, though, has a wallet that is ready for inspection by anybody at all times.

(even more so, those loudly proclaiming they are leaving Labour to join Galloway's new "party")

Let us devoutly hope they do so. Makes it much easier to stop them rejoining in future.

Well yes, in many cases they are no great loss anyway - the worst "rEiNsTaTe WaLkEr AnD wIlLiAmSoN nOw !!!!??!!!111!!!" type cranks who slip seamlessly into "Starmer is doing Israel's orders".

One thing that was lost in 2015-2016 (partly as usual because there was a lot of cases involving screaming wolf) is that a lot of the fringe left parties wound up and absorded into Labour.

Whilst the numbers were small I'd still be pretty confident to say it would run in the thousands were pretty horrible but dogged activists joined Labour from groups like Left Unity, TUSC, the Socialist Party & probably even some ex-community groups- I must admit I know nothing in detail of the politics of these groups other than having gone to a few meetings where it was 2-3 ageging lefties arguining whether Chavez was a reformer- of course it was the white old bloke telling the South American trade unionist that Chavez was great but I'm going off my point.

I had someone at my CLP stand up & say 'After 30 years in Militant I'm glad to be back'- and frankly the party & the left of the party would benefit greatly from these people going back to their irrelevant & tedious petty fiefdoms.

There is a marked difference between people of the left joining and organsiing & people from organised leftist politcal parties joining with the intention of being absolutely awful to everyone.

 

[CumbrianLefty]

Yes, the trouble was that so much scaremongering at that time appeared to claim that *all* the new members were like this (as if there were hundreds of thousands of members of obscure Stalinist/Trot sects out there) The actual numbers were, as you say, never the problem.

[MaxQue]

Not that it matters much anymore, but how many of the new Shadow Cabinet represent constituencies that voted to Leave? Given a majority of Labour seats, even after the 2019 election, still voted to Leave, I'd expect it'd be a sizable chunk (Miliband's seat for instance had a 72% Leave vote while he has a 6% majority).

According to the Hanretty estimates:

Remain:
Starmer (73%)
Dodds (67%)
Lammy (76%)
Thornberry (72%)
Ashworth (58%)
Stevens (68%)
Reed (59%)
Debonnaire (79%)
Gill (53%)
Murray (78%)
de Cordova (78%)

Leave:
Rayner (62%)
Nandy (63%)
Thomas-Symonds (61%)
Reeves (53%)
Healey (70%)
Milibrand (72%)
Reynolds (59%)
Long-Bailey (54%)
Philipson (62%)
Pollard (54%)
McMahon (61%)
Haigh (57%)
Griffiths (57%)
McDonald (66%)

14-11 Leave. Through, the average of the results is Remain 52%.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Yes, the trouble was that so much scaremongering at that time appeared to claim that *all* the new members were like this (as if there were hundreds of thousands of members of obscure Stalinist/Trot sects out there) The actual numbers were, as you say, never the problem.

The thing is, it only takes a couple of people to ruin a branch, to ruin an entire CLP. That's the bad news, we're all very familiar with the consequences. I've seen a particularly nasty case locally. The good news, though, is that the reverse is also true.

[Blair]

Momentum seems to be undergoing some sort of change...

[CumbrianLefty]

Not that it matters much anymore, but how many of the new Shadow Cabinet represent constituencies that voted to Leave? Given a majority of Labour seats, even after the 2019 election, still voted to Leave, I'd expect it'd be a sizable chunk (Miliband's seat for instance had a 72% Leave vote while he has a 6% majority).

According to the Hanretty estimates:

Remain:
Starmer (73%)
Dodds (67%)
Lammy (76%)
Thornberry (72%)
Ashworth (58%)
Stevens (68%)
Reed (59%)
Debonnaire (79%)
Gill (53%)
Murray (78%)
de Cordova (78%)

Leave:
Rayner (62%)
Nandy (63%)
Thomas-Symonds (61%)
Reeves (53%)
Healey (70%)
Milibrand (72%)
Reynolds (59%)
Long-Bailey (54%)
Philipson (62%)
Pollard (54%)
McMahon (61%)
Haigh (57%)
Griffiths (57%)
McDonald (66%)

14-11 Leave. Through, the average of the results is Remain 52%.

Smith and Vaz still listed as members as well?

[MaxQue]

Not that it matters much anymore, but how many of the new Shadow Cabinet represent constituencies that voted to Leave? Given a majority of Labour seats, even after the 2019 election, still voted to Leave, I'd expect it'd be a sizable chunk (Miliband's seat for instance had a 72% Leave vote while he has a 6% majority).

According to the Hanretty estimates:

Remain:
Starmer (73%)
Dodds (67%)
Lammy (76%)
Thornberry (72%)
Ashworth (58%)
Stevens (68%)
Reed (59%)
Debonnaire (79%)
Gill (53%)
Murray (78%)
de Cordova (78%)

Leave:
Rayner (62%)
Nandy (63%)
Thomas-Symonds (61%)
Reeves (53%)
Healey (70%)
Milibrand (72%)
Reynolds (59%)
Long-Bailey (54%)
Philipson (62%)
Pollard (54%)
McMahon (61%)
Haigh (57%)
Griffiths (57%)
McDonald (66%)

14-11 Leave. Through, the average of the results is Remain 52%.

Smith and Vaz still listed as members as well?

Smith and Vaz (and Brown and Allin-Khan) are wierd cases, they are not members of the shadow cabinet per se, but attend all meetings.

Remain:
Allin-Khan (74%)
Brown (59%)

Leave:
Smith (52%)
Vaz (62%)

As you can see, it doesn't accet the balance and even push the average more towards Remain.

[CumbrianLefty]

Thanks for that, I suspected that Lancaster/Fleetwood would be close.

(with the latter very much tilting things towards leave!)

[Blair]

https://labourlist.org/2020/04/shadow-ministers-appointed-as-starmer-completes-frontbench/

Junior Ministers appointed.

My reactions ranged from 'oh smart', 'oh really?' and in the case of one unammed birmingham MP 'wait what...'

The reaction (in the whole 40 minutes since it was announced) is that it's a boon to the right of the Party; with people like Streeting & Phillips pushed up but frankly with the big jobs going to the middle you were going to always naturally appoint the junior postions to the right of the party; as there's more of them in the 2010/2015 intake.

It's laregly rewarded Starmer backers who didn't get big jobs (Malhotra, Pennycock, Sarah Jones) given some cover to Nandy/RLB backers (Kinnock, Llloyd-Moyle, Greenwood) and most likely done some padding in terms of region/relationships/comeptency.

It's not easy arranging 200 people into 60 jobs!

[DaWN]

I see my own MP is now a Shadow Cabinet Office Minister.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Kendall back at Social Care? Oof.

It does make sense that the right would be overrepresented in the junior positions considering the center-to-left skew of the SC, though.

[brucejoel99]

Kendall back at Social Care? Oof.

At least she (like seemingly all of the Starmer front bench) is in a position that she'd be expected to do well in.

[Intell]

So Starmer wants to lead the party in a right-wards direction, disappointing but the left-candidate in the race was horrible so we're stuck with this.