Glance n.2 by Giovanni Faleg

October 18, 2010

Round up

Oct. 8 – Labour shadow cabinet formed

The team that have been passed the torch for Labour in the years to come was announced by Labour leader Ed Miliband on October 8, 2010. The formation of the new shadow cabinet has attracted media attention due to the departure of some prominent Labour figures among them David Miliband, Peter Mendelson, Alistair Darling, Jack Straw and Bob Ainsworth from frontline politics.

Instead some surprising appointments ignited a political debate. Following up party rules Labour leader Ed Miliband has assigned the roles in the shadow cabinet after the Parliamentary Labour Party elected 19 MPs on October 7.

Labour “couple” Yvette Cooper and Ed Balls were both successful and were awarded top jobs. They occupy high-ranking posts of Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and Home Department. Ms Cooper received the most votes (232), followed by John Healey (Health, 192) and Ed Balls (179).

Among other top positions, Miliband’s leadership campaign manager Sadiq Khan (a British Pakistani that may challenge Conservative Party Chairman Sayeeda Warsi) became Secretary of State for Justice, while senior figures Jim Murphy and Andy Burnham got defence and education.

Quite surprisingly, former Secretary of State for the Home Department Alan Johnson was appointed Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, despite having no experience in financial matters.

A complete list of the newly appointed shadow cabinet members is compiled below (source: Labour Party website):

Leader of the Labour Party – Ed Miliband; Deputy Leader and Shadow Secretary of State for International Development – Harriet Harman; Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer – Alan Johnson; Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and Minister for Women and Equalities – Yvette Cooper; Shadow Secretary of State for the Home Department – Ed Balls; Shadow Lord Chancellor, Secretary of State for Justice (with responsibility for political and constitutional reform) – Sadiq Khan; Shadow Secretary of State for Defence – Jim Murphy; Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills – John Denham; Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions – Douglas Alexander; Shadow Secretary of State for Health – John Healey; Shadow Secretary of State for Education and Election Coordinator – Andy Burnham; Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government – Caroline Flint; Shadow Secretary of State for Transport – Maria Eagle; Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change – Meg Hillier; Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – Mary Creagh; Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office – Liam Byrne; Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland – Shaun Woodward; Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland – Ann McKechin; Shadow Secretary of State for Wales – Peter Hain; Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport – Ivan Lewis; Shadow Minister for the Olympics – Tessa Jowell; Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury – Angela Eagle; Shadow Leader of the House of Lords – Baroness Royall of Blaisdon; Chief Whip – Rosie Winterton; Shadow Leader of the House of Commons – Hilary Benn; Lords Chief Whip – Lord Bassam of Brighton; Shadow Attorney-General – Baroness Scotland; Parliamentary Labour Party Chair – Tony Lloyd; Shadow Minister of State – Cabinet Office - Jon Trickett.

Oct. 13 – Miliband plays safe against Cameron in first PMQs

During his first PMQs, on October 13, Edward Miliband attacked David Cameron over the changes proposed by the coalition to child benefits and single income families.

The Daily Telegraph described the first round of Cameron vs Miliband as “a fight between the Prime Minister, wielding a moral club with which he expects to intimidate anyone who stands in his way, and Mr Miliband, who is bent on converting Middle England into “Miliband England” by appealing to our naked self-interest”.

In his first role as opposition leader before parliament Mr Miliband did rather well. He played safe and came across as an authoritative, determined and not far too impetuous leader of the opposition, ready for the next round.

Watch the PMQs video on the BBC website

Wrap up

New generation, “good old” Labour?

Opposition parties have criticized Ed Miliband’s cabinet choices, casting aspersions on  the lack of economic experience of shadow chancellor Mr. Johnson and denouncing new shadow foreign secretary Yvette Cooper’s support for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Other detractors have contended that only 5 members of the cabinet were Ed supporters during the election and that Miliband’s shadow cabinet looks very much like the Blair/Brown New Labour establishment.

The new shadow cabinet may well be a deception for those who believed in a breakup from the New Labour. The reason why a revolutionary change did not come about is that, whatever its intentions, Ed Miliband has to face prevailing political realities. After all, Ed won the election thanks to the support of the base of the party, but MPs in Westminster (who elect the members of the shadow cabinet) largely favored his brother David.

Against this backdrop, however, there are some significant lessons to learn from the formation of the shadow cabinet.  Excluding ex-officio members of the cabinet, the leader and the deputy, 8 out of 19 line-ups are new to the frontbench. Only four members of the Shadow Cabinet (Harman, Jowell, Denham and Eagle) have previous parliamentary experience of opposition. Seventeen of the current shadow cabinet members entered parliament from 1997-2005 while Labour was in power, whereas fourteen members got a cabinet post before.  Fourteen members are aged under 50.

These data suggest that Mr Miliband is indeed keeping his promises of generational “renewal” of Labour leadership, though not at the detriment of the party’s unity after a divisive leadership contest.

As early as Monday 18^th, Labour will unveil its plans for the economy. The weeks ahead will then tell if the new cabinet is able to and capable of turning their intentions into deeds and regain the trust of the electorate.