Corbyn snubs ‘traitors’ with reshuffle

JEREMY Corbyn yesterday snubbed the Labour ‘traitors’ who defied him on Brexit by promoting a string of MPs who remained loyal to the leadership.

The Labour leader appointed 20 MPs to fill vacancies on his frontbench, including six who had previously resigned from his shadow team.

Three MPs elected to the Commons for the first time in last month’s election were among the appointments.

Mr Corbyn was forced into another reshuffle after sacking three frontbenchers for voting in favour of a rebel amendment urging the Government to keep the UK in the single market.

The appointments, announced yesterday, were confined to MPs who had stuck to the party line, which was to quit the single market entirely.

Last week, Mr Corbyn’s closest ally, shadow chancellor John McDonnell, reportedly said there should be ‘no jobs for trai- tors’. Tories said Labour was so short of talent that Mr Corbyn had been forced to re-appoint MPs who had previously quit after criticising his leadership. Last night Tory MP Luke Hall said: ‘This reshuffle was forced on Jeremy Corbyn because of the chaos within the Labour Party which saw 49 of his own MPs defy him over Brexit.’

New MPs joining the frontbench less than a month after their arrival in the Commons were Paul Sweeney for Glasgow North East, Afzal Khan for Manchester Gorton and Anneliese Dodds for Oxford East.