It is an open secret in Westminster that Ed Miliband will hold a shadow cabinet reshuffle at some point before the Labour conference, so who is line for promotion? One Labour MP told me that a good rule of thumb is to look at those who have recently appeared on Question Time (often for the first time), regarded as a useful test of their media abilities.
Recent Labour panellists have included shadow Northern Ireland secretary Vernon Coaker (23 May), shadow immigration ministers Chris Bryant (16 May) and shadow climate change minister Luciana Berger (25 April), all of whom other sources have told me are likely to be promoted in the reshuffle. Stella Creasy (currently shadow minister for crime prevention), who has already appeared several times on the programme, is another expected to move up the ranks.
MPs also suggest that Rachel Reeves, currently on maternity leave, is likely to shadow “a major spending department” when she returns, with Chris Leslie, who has acted as Ed Balls’s deputy in her absence, possibly replacing her as shadow chief secretary to the Treasury.
Incidentally, a senior Labour figure told me last week that Alistair Darling would almost certainly have to return to the frontline after “saving the Union” next year (Darling is chair of the Better Together campaign) but not as shadow chancellor (rightly so, in my view; Ed Balls’s performance yesterday showed why he is such an asset for Labour). The source suggested he could take on the role of party chair, one of the posts currently held by Harriet Harman. Here’s what Darling had to say when recently asked by Andrew Neil on The Sunday Politics if he would “come and help the battle to give the Labour Party economic credibility”.
I am very confident that my colleagues, Ed Miliband, Ed Balls, are very aware of what they have to do and they will do it. Because we owe it to the people that support us and the people we’ve yet to win over to put forward an argument that is going to convince people. Heavens, you know, you rightly said this government is in one terrible mess at the moment as far as the economy is concerned. They’re way off track, none of their plans are stacking up, they’re losing credibility. We need to have a compelling alternative. There is one, and I will be helping my colleagues do that. But at the moment, for the next 18 months, you know where I am.
To translate, he’s ruling nothing out.
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