Shadow rail minister Jonathon Reynolds tweeted his resignation from the front benches on Wednesday citing concerns about the Labour leader\u2019s relationship with the Stop the War Coalition.<\/p>\n
\u201cI cannot in good conscience endorse the world view of the Stop the War Coalition,\u201d<\/em> he said, adding he believed them to be \u201cfundamentally wrong\u201d<\/em> in their approach to UK security.<\/p>\n On reflection regarding yesterday’s Labour reshuffle, I have decided that it’s best if I serve the Party as a backbencher. I’ve written to Jeremy this morning to let him know.<\/p>\n Posted by Jonathan Reynolds MP<\/a> on\u00a0Wednesday, 6 January 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n He said he agreed with sacked Europe minister Pat McFadden that it was wrong to \u201cabsolve ISIS [Islamic State]\u201d<\/em> for their actions in Paris.<\/p>\n Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn meanwhile retained his role as shadow foreign secretary despite opposing Corbyn outright over the successful Syria bombing vote in early December.<\/p>\n The decision lends weight to shadow chancellor and Corbyn ally John McDonnell\u2019s claims on Tuesday that the reshuffle would not be a \u201cnight of the long knives\u201d<\/em> purge.<\/p>\n Other high-level changes include pro-Trident defense secretary Maria Eagle, who has been given the culture secretary job from which Blairite Michael Dugher has been removed. Anti-Trident MP Emily Thornberry will take over.<\/p>\n Deputy leader Tom Watson appeared supportive of Dugher, who claims his \u201cstraight talking\u201d<\/em> was the issue.<\/p>\n Watson told the Independent: \u201cMichael Dugher is a rare politician \u2014 a talented working-class MP who hasn\u2019t lost his strong Yorkshire roots.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cPoliticians with his ability and commitment can make a difference in any role. Labour\u2019s loss in the Shadow Cabinet will be compensated by Michael\u2019s free thought on the back benches,\u201d<\/em> Watson added.<\/p>\n Alongside Dugher, one of the most vocal casualties has been Pat McFadden, formerly Europe minister, who is widely viewed as having been cut for lack of loyalty and public attacks on Corbyn in the wake of the Paris terror attacks in November 2015.<\/p>\n McFadden, a Blairite loyalist, made comments about a rapidly withdrawn Stop the War Coalition blog claiming the attacks which killed 130 people were a case of the West \u201creaping the whirlwind\u201d<\/em> of foreign wars. His intervention was seen by some as a coded attack on Corbyn.<\/p>\n Others pointed to the substantial authority Corbyn derives from his mandate.<\/p>\n Labour MP Cat Smith told the BBC Wednesday: \u201cJeremy Corbyn, as leader of the Labour Party, is within his rights to pick the people that he wants to serve in his shadow cabinet.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cAnd if he doesn\u2019t want people in the shadow cabinet who spend more time attacking the Labour Party leadership than the Tory benches opposite us, then he is perfectly within his rights to do that.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n McFadden\u2019s role as Europe minister will be taken up by Pat Glass who previously served as education chief.<\/p>\n Apart from more junior ministerial appointments the reshuffle is now completed, leaving a favorable gender breakdown of 17 women and 14 men in leading shadow cabinet roles.<\/p>\n Speaking to the Guardian on Tuesday, John McDonnell indicated how things would work going forward.<\/p>\n \u201cJeremy will represent the parliamentary Labour Party on the frontbench. If there\u2019s a disagreement and people \u2014 on a free vote \u2014 want to express their views, they\u2019ll do it from the backbenches,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Via RT<\/a>.\u00a0This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has replaced his defense and Europe ministers but kept on his hawkish shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn. Shadow rail minister Jonathan Reynolds, however, resigned on Wednesday morning. Shadow rail minister Jonathon Reynolds tweeted his resignation from the front benches on Wednesday citing concerns about the Labour leader\u2019s relationship with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":213729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-214246","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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