Largely unnoticed by the London-centric media, the Shadow Cabinet elections and Ed Miliband’s subsequent frontbench appointments have seen a seismic shift in Labour’s regional balance of power. Gone are the strangleholds once held in and out of power by the Scots and the Geordies. Instead we have seen figures from Yorkshire and the north-west of England come to dominate key opposition portfolios. Death and devolution – from John Smith to Donald Dewar – has robbed Scotland of its once-great grip – as did despair at Gordon Brown, with John Reid one of the most notable figures to bow out before he was pushed.
Alistair Darling left when his boss did. The recent shake-up has also robbed the north-east of much of the influence it enjoyed during the heady days of Tony Blair, Peter Mandelson, Mo Mowlam and Nick Brown. The switch towards the other northern territories is partly due to generational factors, partly due to election politics.
Merseyside bucked the national trend and held its Labour vote pretty solidly, which meant there were more talented newcomers and equally talented older hands to pick from. As a result, the Shadow Cabinet elections saw twins Maria and Angela Eagle propelled to the top team, Maria as Shadow Transport Secretary and Angela as Shadow Chief Secretary. Both roles will be crucial in exposing the reality behind the spin in the Comprehensive Spending Review. Shaun Woodward kept his Northern Ireland brief despite being unelected, while Derek Twigg joined the health team, retread Stephen Twigg went to foreign affairs and newcomer Luciana Berger took the climate change role and will be pivotal in exploiting one of the coalition’s weakest links.
Beyond the city-region borders, Andy Burnham, once again flavour of the month despite his fourth placing in the leadership contest, became Shadow Health Secretary charged with opposing the coalition’s backdoor structural onslaught on the NHS. He is also Labour’s election co-ordinator, imposing street-level reality on the chattering classes. Greater Manchester’s Ivan Lewis takes on culture, media and sport, Phil Woolas retains his Home Office brief in a two-fingered gesture to the Liberal Democrats, of all people, who cried foul at tough election tactics. Andrew Gwynne has the transport portfolio.
A similar pattern has emerged in Yorkshire which can now boast Ed Miliband himself, Shadow Chancellor Alan Johnson, Yvette Cooper (foreign), Ed Balls (Home Office), top table newcomers Rosie Winterton (Chief Whip) and John Healey (health), plus Mary Creagh (environment), Jon Trickett (Cabinet Office), Rachel Reeves (work and pensions) and Michael Dugher (defence).
Woolas gives one explanation for the shift: “In my area particularly, we had many more marginals than the north-east. As a result, we have tended to pick home-grown candidates, with a few honourable exceptions. That was reflected in both the Shadow Cabinet elections and the appointments. There is a lot of new talent coming through and most of it is local. That trend can only continue as the newcomers get more experienced .”
In the past, areas such as the north-east were so rock solid that up-and-coming metropolitan figures could be parachuted in with barely a ripple of protest. Those days have now gone. And maybe that is no bad thing.
