Corbyn dallies on reshuffle in ‘night of blunt knives’

Jeremy Corbyn’s purge of dissident MPs was labelled the “night of the blunt knives” after the Labour leader spent two days struggling to rebuild the shadow cabinet in his own image.

Mr Corbyn’s allies had made it clear over the Christmas break that he wanted to remove several members of his top team who had defied him on key policy issues, including defence spokeswoman Maria Eagle and shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn.

But his interminable negotiations with his own MPs were mocked by David Cameron in the House of Commons, with the prime minister jokingly apologising for interrupting “what is clearly the longest reshuffle in history”.

Mr Corbyn has also been determined to close down a high-level row over the Trident nuclear deterrent before the government authorises its renewal later this year.

Ms Eagle’s position as shadow defence secretary has been seen as untenable by the leadership because she is an outspoken backer of Trident. Mr Corbyn, the vice-president of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, is a fervent unilateralist.

The Labour leader has been seeking to replace Ms Eagle with an MP who shares his opposition to replacing Trident.

Mr Corbyn also began the week seeking to shift Mr Benn to a less controversial position after the two took opposing positions over the government’s bombing of Isis jihadis in Syria. That was complicated when the shadow foreign secretary sought to hold on to the post and several unnamed members of the shadow cabinet threatened to resign if he were sacked.

The Labour leader had gathered his key aides on Monday afternoon to put the final touches to a reshuffle that was expected to be completed on the same day.

Yet on Tuesday evening — after two days of speculation — he was still trying to put the finishing touches to his announcement.

Michael Dugher, left, former shadow culture secretary, was the first victim of what Corbyn allies described as a crackdown on “extreme disloyalty” to the leader. Mr Dugher pre-empted Mr Corbyn’s formal announcement by saying on Tuesday morning via Twitter that he had been sacked as shadow culture secretary.

He told the FT that Mr Corbyn’s allies had “trashed the reputations” of senior Labour MPs in recent weeks with anonymous media briefings. The MP said that he had been removed for speaking out: “So much for the new politics.”

At least nine members of the shadow cabinet publicly expressed disappointment that Mr Dugher had been sacked.

Late on Tuesday night, it emerged that Pat McFadden, one of the few Blairites in the front bench, had been sacked as Europe spokesman. Mr McFadden had earlier this week urged Mr Corbyn not to carry out a revenge reshuffle of his critics.

Many MPs complained that the endless speculation about the reshuffle was undermining the party’s attempts to hold the government to account over issues such as flooding, Europe and terrorism. “It’s just amateurish,” said one MP.

A Labour initiative to highlight the annual rise in rail fares was also overshadowed.

“Maybe Corbyn shouldn’t have decided to gazump his own campaign with a shadow cabinet reshuffle,” said Tom Harris, a former Labour MP.

Allies of the leader blamed a busy parliamentary schedule for the lengthy process: “It’s like trying to do a Rubik’s Cube,” said one.

Many MPs believe that Seumas Milne, head of communications for Mr Corbyn, has been pushing for a wholesale purge of centrist MPs.

“The question people want to know is whether Milne is now running the Labour party,” said one frontbencher.

A mass sacking would have prompted resignations by figures including Andy Burnham, according to allies of the shadow home secretary.

In September, many centrist MPs agreed to work in the Corbyn administration from a sense of duty and to retain some influence.

Now many of them are questioning whether they have the stomach for the more than four years until the next general election.

“It would be so easy to just quit and become a backbencher. A lot of us are wondering whether this is worth the candle,” said one.