Labour MPs quit as whips after Corbyn shadow cabinet reshuffle

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Two Labour MPs have resigned from the shadow whips' office, just days after party leader Jeremy Corbyn reshuffled his front bench.

His decision to replace chief whip Dame Rosie Winterton with Nick Brown, was met with some surprise last week.

MPs Holly Lynch and Conor McGinn have resigned, it was confirmed on Sunday.

Ms Lynch tweeted it was "time to focus" on her marginal constituency while Mr McGinn said it was the "right time" to concentrate on his seat and his family.

A spokesman for Mr Corbyn thanked them for their service and said that their positions would be filled "in due course".

'Pleasure to serve'

Whips are appointed to help ensure their party's discipline, for instance by making sure MPs vote.

St Helens North MP Mr McGinn had clashed with Mr Corbyn in August, when he accused him of threatening to use Mr McGinn's father to "bully me into submission" after he spoke out against the Labour leader.

On his website, he said he had been "very grateful" to the new chief whip for "offering me the opportunity to stay" but "I explained to him that I felt it was the right time for me to leave the front bench at this reshuffle to concentrate on my constituency responsibilities and my young family".

He said the new team had his best wishes and thanked "outstanding" Dame Rosie and colleagues for their support.

Ms Lynch tweeted her best wishes to Dame Rosie's replacement, Nick Brown, adding: "It has been a pleasure to serve with @labourwhips but with one of the most marginal seats, it's time to focus all my efforts on Halifax."

In last week's reshuffle, Mr Corbyn filled a number of jobs that were left empty after a mass walkout from his front bench this summer, in protest at his leadership.

A leadership challenge from Owen Smith followed but Mr Corbyn was re-elected, with an increased mandate from Labour members, last month.

While his reshuffle was hailed as showing "guts" and being "decisive" by his allies, the sacking of Dame Rosie as chief whip was met with some disappointment last week.

'Unresolved issues'

Chairman of the parliamentary Labour Party John Cryer wrote to MPs to protest that he and Dame Rosie had been kept in the dark about the reshuffle, despite being in the middle of talks with the leadership about whether some shadow cabinet posts should be elected.

And there were reports on Sunday that Labour rebels were planning to form their own "shadow shadow cabinet", in competition with the front bench, to produce its own policy initiatives.

In last week's reshuffle, several MPs who resigned from the shadow cabinet in the summer in protest at Mr Corbyn's leadership returned to the fold.

Among them was Sir Keir Starmer, the new shadow Brexit secretary. He told BBC One's Andrew Marr Show: "There are unresolved issues in the Parliamentary Labour Party.

"We do need to resolve them as soon as possible. We need to be an outward-looking, confident party rather than an inward, divided party, so we need to address that.

"I respect colleagues who want to make their voice heard from different places, whether it's the back bench, the mid bench through select committees, or on the front bench."

Labour MP for Bassetlaw John Mann, who has criticised Mr Corbyn's leadership in the past, told the BBC's Sunday Politics: "I think we should get on with the job now. He's won whether people like it or not and the last thing we want, I think, is a year of internalised, inward looking Labour navel gazing."

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