Labour Moderates Return To Frontbench As Jeremy Corbyn Appoints New 20 Shadow Ministers

Labour moderates have returned to the Labour frontbench, as Jeremy Corbyn announced a raft of shadow ministerial appointments on Monday.

The most striking return is for Gloria de Piero, who quit as Corbyn’s shadow minister for shadow minister for young people and voter registration in June last year.

The Ashfield MP, who is a member of the Blairite Progress group within Labour, has been made a shadow justice minister.

Corbyn said today he was filling his frontbench with “a wealth of talent” that showed “further evidence that Labour is not just the opposition – we are the government in waiting”.

Speaking in the Commons shortly after the appointments, Home Secretary Amber Rudd welcomed the appointment of the shadow ministers.

Corbyn heckled Rudd: “They’ll be ministers soon.”

Rachael Maskell returns to the frontbench as a shadow transport minister. She quit as shadow environment secretary in February in protest at Corbyn’s decision to impose a three-line whip to force his MPs to vote for the invoking of Article 50.

Several other MPs who had previous quit Corbyn’s frontbench have returned, including Roberta Blackman Woods, Melanie Onn and Yvonne Fovargue.

There are also positions for Corbyn loyalists including Chris Williamson, who has been made shadow minister for fire services in the wake of the Grenfell Tower blaze.

Williamson said his election as MP for Derby North was a “test case” for Corbynism.

Labour’s new chairman, Ian Lavery, said Williamson’s appointment “is a sign that the days of free market Thatcherism are coming to an end”.

MPs elected for the first time at the snap election just 24 days ago have also been given jobs including Afzal Khan and Anneliese Dodds.

Just moments after his appointment was announced, Khan was sitting on the frontbench alongside Corbyn and shadow home secretary Diane Abbott in the Commons as Rudd took questions

Full list of shadow ministerial appointments

DEFRA
David Drew
Holly Lynch

Home Affairs
Nick Thomas Symonds
Chris Williamson
Afzal Khan
Louise Haigh

Scotland
Paul Sweeney

Justice
Gloria de Piero
Imran Hussain

International Development
Roberta Blackman Woods

Transport
Rachael Maskell
Karl Turner

Treasury
Anneliese Dodds

Housing
Tony Lloyd
Melanie Onn

Women and equalities
Carolyn Harris

Defence
Gerald Jones

Local Government
Yvonne Fovargue

Education
Tracy Brabin

Wales
Chris Ruane