Ed Miliband today used a reshuffle to give a youthful look to his Shadow Cabinet, promoting six MPs elected in 2010.
At the age of only 32, Chuka Umunna and Rachel Reeves are among rising stars handed senior positions, as Shadow business secretary and shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, just 18 months after entering Parliament.
Phone-hacking campaigner Tom Watson joined the shadow cabinet as deputy chair and campaign coordinator but insisted he would hold onto his role as one of News International’s chief tormentors on the Commons Culture Committee, usually reserved for backbenchers.
It is the first time a Labour leader has had a completely free hand following a rule change which means the Shadow CSabinet is no longer elected by a ballot of the party’s MPs.
But Mr Miliband resisted the temptation to impose his ideological stamp on the top team, promoting prominent Blairite Stephen Twigg to Shadow education secretary and retaining New Labour stalwarts Tessa Jowell and Liam Byrne.