17:09

Corbyn wants to act with care to avoid a bloodbath, as he seeks to maintain what has been called his “big tent” approach to politics – which involved appointing only a handful of his own supporters to the shadow cabinet, says the Guardian’s Nicholas Watt.



The Labour leader’s caution means that he has approached the reshuffle with a range of options on how to achieve greater coherence in the sensitive areas of foreign and defence policy.

His ideal solution would involve moving Benn and Eagle to other senior posts, but he acknowledges that this may not be possible if it would risk a damaging split.

He could then downgrade his ambitions to moving just one of the two or reaching an understanding that they would remain in post in return for acknowledging and respecting the mandate he received in the Labour leadership contest.