After David Cameron’s Night of the Long Knives, Ed Miliband is likely to take the chance to freshen his top team before the general election. As I’ve previously reported, Miliband may use his final reshuffle to achieve gender parity in the shadow cabinet, fulfilling a pledge he made during the Labour leadership election. At present, women make up 44 per cent of the his team, putting him within touching distance of his target. By contrast, even after Cameron’s recent reshuffle, just 25 per cent of the cabinet are female. Lucy Powell, the shadow childcare minister, and Luciana Berger, the shadow public health minister, are two of those tipped for promotion by party insiders.
But while Miliband has long championed “the new generation” (31 per cent of his shadow cabinet are 2010ers), others in Labour are urging him to bring back “big beasts” from the past, with Alan Johnson the most popular choice. Tom Watson, Len McCluskey and John Prescott have all called for the former home secretary to return to the shadow cabinet.
Now, in an interview with the NS, Mary Creagh has added her voice to those backing a Johnson comeback. She told me:
I would love Alan to come back into the shadow cabinet. I think he’s fantastic … He’s got a huge contribution still to make to politics.
She added: “But I also want him to keep writing his books, because they’re fantastic too. I read This Boy; I thought it was wonderful, I cried when I read when it, it was just so incredibly moving. You understand where Alan comes from in a completely different way, but it was also a beautiful tribute to the west London working class life that he had.
“He showed a different world and a different approach, and a different model of fatherhood. But also the generosity of the people around them, giving them a box of groceries because they never quite had enough food.
“So would I want to see Alan come back? Yeh, definitely. I think Alan’s got a huge contribution still to make to politics.”
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