Jeremy Corbyn sacks two senior figures but Hilary Benn stays

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is expected to finalise a reshuffle of his top team on Tuesday after late-night talks with key members of the shadow cabinet ended without any announcement.

But the drawn-out reshuffle was limited to sacking Europe spokesman Pat McFadden and culture spokesman Michael Dugher, for what a source in Corbyn’s inner circle called “acts of disloyalty”, and demoting defence spokeswoman Maria Eagle.

Thornberry, who opposes the renewal of the Trident missile system, replaced Maria Eagle as Shadow Defence Secretary.

Mr McFadden, whose place is being taken by Pat Glass, infuriated the leadership by criticising Mr Corbyn’s response to the Paris terror attacks.

The shadow foreign secretary had been tipped for the sack after a bravura Commons speech supporting military intervention in Syria which won cheers from across the political spectrum, b ut kept hold of the brief amid claims that his dismissal would spark a mass walkout.

Early this morning, the Labour leader and Islington North MP appointed Islington South and Finsbury MP Emily Thornberry as shadow secretary of state for defence.

But Jonathan Reynolds, the party’s rail spokesman, said in his resignation letter posted on Facebook: “I understand your need for a greater degree of discipline on the front bench and therefore believe it would be more appropriate to advocate these causes as a backbencher (a rank and file Labour lawmaker)”.

A Wednesday Dec. 2, 2015 photo from files showing Britain’s Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn leaving his home in London to attend a debate in Parliament.

Corbyn’s changes – dubbed a “revenge reshuffle” in the press – were announced after two days of closed-door meetings, and were more limited than many had anticipated.

Former London mayor Ken Livingstone said Labour MPs have no right to override the wishes of the party’s membership on policy.

Mr Reynolds tore into shadow worldwide development secretary Diane Abbott after she wrongly dismissed those who had quit as career politicians who had all been special advisers.

“There were issues where there has been undermining of his(Corbyn’s) leadership and not accepting his mandate from the party members that he received in the election”, he told Sky News.

In a sign of just how much this farcical Labour reshuffle has overshadowed everything else, there was not a single question on Cameron’s decision to allow ministers to campaign on the opposite side from him come the European Union referendum. “We weren’t in the Labour cabinet because we disagreed with certain views so we spoke from the backbenches”.

The shadow chancellor said Mr McFadden had “distorted” the Labour leader’s views on a number of occasions and turned it into a “personalised” attack.

“I think when we say that terrorist attacks are somehow our responsibility, we run the danger of not defending our own societies strongly enough, so this was a difference of substance”.

JEREMY CORBYN can draw strength from this week’s messy front bench shake-up, his supporters said yesterday amid a flurry of resignations from “unknown” junior spokesmen.