Shadow ministers resign as Brexit fallout continues

A string of Labour MPs have resigned from the shadow cabinet in a coup against leader Jeremy Corbyn, triggered by the result of the EU referendum and Corbyn’s decision to sack shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn on Saturday night.

Those who have quit are Gloria De Piero, who speaks for young people, Heidi Alexander, the shadow health secretary, Ian Murray, the Scottish secretary, Lillian Greenwood, the transport spokesperson, the education spokesperson, Lucy Powell, and Kerry McCarthy, the environment and rural affairs spokesperson.

More members of the shadow cabinet are expected to resign with several other members reportedly writing their resignation letters.

The string of resignations come in the wake of the sacking of Hilary Benn, the shadow foreign secretary, who was reported to have been preparing to lead a coup against leader Jeremy Corbyn. After his sacking, Benn then turned on Corbyn, telling the Labour leader that MPs and shadow cabinet members have “no confidence in our ability to win the election” under his leadership.

It is understood that Benn had called fellow MPs over the weekend to suggest that he would ask Corbyn to stand down if there was significant support for a move against him. He had also asked shadow cabinet colleagues to join him in resigning if Corbyn ignored that request.

The Labour party campaigned for Remain during the referendum, which saw the UK voting to leave the EU by 52% to 48% on Thursday.

The sacking of Benn appears to have set the tone for the resignation of other members of the shadow cabinet. The first to step down was Heidi Alexander, the shadow health secretary who said that she does not believe that Corbyn is the right person to lead the Labour Party in its bid to become the next party in government.

“The result of the referendum last week means that our country is facing unprecedented challenges. More than, our country needs an effective opposition which can hold the government to account and which is a capable of developing a credible and inspiring alternative to an increasingly rightwing and backward-looking Conservative party.”

“As much as I respect you as a man of principle, I do not believe you have the capacity to shape the answers our country is demanding and I believe that if we are to form the next government, a change of leadership is essential,” Alexander said.

Shortly after her resignation, other members of the shadow cabinet followed. In her resignation letter to Corbyn, De Piero, the party’s spokesperson for youths, told Corbyn that she does not believe that he can “deliver a victory at a general election, which may take place in a matter of months.”

“I have been contacted by many of my members this weekend and It is clear that a good number of them share that view and have lost faith in your leadership,” De Piero said.

Lucy Powell, shadow education secretary, told Corbyn that his position as Labour leader had become untenable and he was unable to command the support of the shadow cabinet, the Labour Party, and the country.

Greenwood said the Labour Party need unity which can only be achieved under new leadership. The party’s spokesperson for transport said the EU referendum “exacerbated fault lines within the Party and our supporters, and those divisions are still widening.”

However, Andy Burnham, the shadow home secretary, said he would stay put, saying he did not see the sense of Labour plunging itself in civil war. “I have never taken part in a coup against any leader of the Labour party and I am not going to start now. It is for our members to decide you leads our party and 10 months ago they gave Jeremy Corbyn a resounding mandate,” he wrote on Twitter.

The resignations came as over 170,000 people signed up to a petition entitled a “vote of confidence in Jeremy Corbyn after Brexit”.