Ed Miliband returns to Labour front bench
One of new leader’s most high-profile endorsers given plum job as Starmer assembles shadow cabinet
ED MILIBAND has returned to the Labour front bench five years after leading the party to defeat, as Sir Keir Starmer’s new team signalled a shift away from the party’s “soak the rich” strategy.
Mr Miliband, who led the party for five years from 2010, said he was “looking forward” to serving as shadow business, energy and industrial secretary as he said the party must “work with the Government” to help those businesses and workers worst hit by the pandemic.
It comes after this newspaper revealed in February that Mr Miliband, one of Sir Keir’s most high-profile endorsers, was being lined up for a job on the shadow front benches.
Meanwhile, Rebecca Long-bailey, who spent much of her leadership campaign denying that she was a “continuity Corbyn” candidate, was made shadow education secretary and Lord Falconer, a stalwart of the Tony Blair years, was appointed shadow attorney general. Sir Keir said he felt “proud to have appointed a shadow cabinet that showcases the breadth, depth and talents of the Labour Party”.
“This is a new team that will be relentlessly focused on acting in the national interest to respond to the pandemic and rebuilding Labour so it can win the next election,” he said.
It comes as Anneliese Dodds, the new shadow chancellor, signalled a switch in Labour’s “soak the rich” strategy as she refused to say whether she backed tax rises for the wealthy.
Ms Dodds, who was one of John Mcdonnell’s deputies under Jeremy Corbyn, appeared to distance herself from the party’s hard-left policies as she dodged questions on whether she would introduce “higher taxes for the rich” in her new role. “I think we need to recognise that everyone must make a contribution,” Ms Dodds, 42, told the Today programme. “This isn’t just about taxation.”
Ms Dodds, who became Labour’s first female shadow chancellor after being appointed to the role by Sir Keir, added that she had “long advocated a more progressive tax system” but declined to set out exactly what that would entail.
She also said she intended to work “constructively” with Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, in improving the Government’s emergency packages for coronavirus, warning against any “partisan knockabout” during the time of crisis.
In another sign of a break with Labour’s hard-left policies, Richard Burgon, the MP for Leeds East and former shadow justice secretary, who unsuccessfully ran to be deputy leader, confirmed he was not offered a position by Sir Keir. Mr Burgon, who was one of the original 35 MPS to nominate Mr Corbyn for the leadership in 2015, was forced to apologise last year after footage emerged of him declaring “Zionism is the enemy of peace” at a Labour meeting in 2014.
In a tweet, he said Sir Keir had informed him “I won’t be in his new shadow cabinet team”.
“As I’ve done since joining the party in the mid-nineties, I’ll continue to give my all to get a Labour government,” he said.
He was replaced by David Lammy, a vocal opponent of Mr Corbyn, who said it was “a great honour” to have been appointed and thanked Sir Keir for “giving me the chance to serve”.