Jeremy Corbyn’s night of the blunt knives

published 7 January 2016

Jeremy Corbyn's drawn-out "purge of dissident MPs" has been labelled the "night of the blunt knives", says Jim Pickard in the Financial Times. Prior to his 48-hour shadow cabinet reshuffle, involving "interminable negotiations" with his MPs, Corbyn had already said that he wanted to remove several of those who had defied him publicly on key policy issues, including defence spokeswoman Maria Eagle, an outspoken backer of Trident, and shadow foreign secretary, Hilary Benn, who called on Labour MPs to support the government over Syrian airstrikes.

Benn stayed in his post in return for an end to public dissent, avoiding a "mass shadow cabinet walkout of up to ten MPs", say Frances Perraudin and Rowena Mason in The Guardian. But Corbyn replaced Eagle with anti-Trident Emily Thornberry and sacked another two frontbenchers for "disloyalty": the shadow Europe minister, Pat McFadden, who made "what was seen as a coded attack on Corbyn's response to the Paris terror attacks"; and the shadow culture secretary, Michael Dugher, whose post was then given to Eagle. Ten members of the shadow cabinet leapt to Dugher's defence in the so-called "revenge reshuffle", and three junior shadow ministers promptly resigned. Elsewhere, Emma Lewell-Buck became shadow devolution minister, replacing Jon Trickett.

So what difference will it make? It could "prove decisive" to Corbyn's "quest to return Labour to a position of support for unilateral nuclear disarmament", says Pickard. Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, said the Labour front bench "would no longer be able to publicly disagree with Corbyn", who "will represent the parliamentary Labour party on the front bench... If there is disagreement and people on a free vote want to express their views, they'll do it from the back benches." There will be little interest in the "blood-letting" beyond Labour's ranks, but it is a key moment within this "once-great party", says Dan Hodges in The Daily Telegraph. Corbyn's sackings sent an "effective signal". The current members of the shadow cabinet are now "fulfilling one function and one function only": "the legitimisation of the Corbyn leadership". That is all very well until, sooner or later, the electorate comes knocking.