Corbyn appoints Eagle as shadow culture secretary

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.

Kevan Jones, Jonathan Reynolds and Stephen Doughty all walked out citing differences with the Labour leader on key policy issues and complaining of “lies” and smears against sacked colleagues.

Ms Thornberry, who shares Mr Corbyn’s opposition to renewing the Trident nuclear deterrent, replaced Maria Eagle, who takes the opposite view.

Mr Doughty, the MP for Cardiff South and Penarth, was appointed as a shadow Foreign Minister by Jeremy Corbyn in October 2015.

Mr McFadden had criticised the views of the Stop The War Coaltion – with which Mr Corbyn is closely associated – in the wake of the Paris atrocities, a move that the leader is said to have taken as a personal attack.

Mr Jones accused Mr Corbyn of “undermining” Maria Eagle, who was moved to culture in the reshuffle because of her opposition to scrapping Trident.

There had been widespread speculation over the future position of Mr Benn – who has been at odds with Mr Corbyn over bombing Syria.

Labour policy will now focus on political rather than military solutions, Mr Corbyn said.

John Woodcock said he was “losing hope” that the leadership was able – or even willing – to make sure the party stood a chance of winning the 2020 general election.

Former mayor of London Ken Livingstone – a close ally of Mr Corbyn – rejected suggestions the leader was not in position to demand loyalty after rebelling many times under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

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.

“[Thornberry] knows nothing about defense as far as I can see it”, he said.

This appears to have been in reference to Corbyn and Thornberry, who serve neighboring Islington constituencies.

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said the reshuffle showed Labour was a threat to national security. We have had a long discussion about how we approach foreign policy issues.

In case you missed it, there’s a fair bit of drama surrounding the shadow cabinet at the moment.

Paraphrasing Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner, a poem in which an albatross carries a curse on the crew of a ship, Mr Cameron said: “Never mind how many Eagles we end up with, I think you have all worked out you’ve got an albatross at the head of your party”.

“I just don’t think that’s the best use of money in terms of defending ourselves”.

It comes after incumbent Michael Dugher said he had been sacked on Tuesday.

“The Conservative leader said other European prime ministers were often asking him “‘What on Earth has happened to the British Labour Party?'”.

He told the BBC on Wednesday morning that Corbyn had told him he thought his comments were “an attack on him and that he had come to the conclusion because of that and one or two other things that I shouldn’t continue”.