Rachel Reeves, Emma Reynolds, Tristram Hunt, Liz Kendall and Yvette Cooper indicate they will not serve under new Labour leader

A victorious Jeremy Corbyn vowed “things can and will change” as he was handed the clearest electoral mandate of any Labour leader, but he also faces the challenge of forming a shadow cabinet after at least seven members of the party’s frontbench indicated they would not serve under his leadership.

Yvette Cooper led the group of shadow cabinet members declaring they could not serve under his leadership in the hours after it emerged that the MP for Islington North had won 60% of the vote in the first round, winning in every part of the electoral college including among party members.

Their decision is a risk, because if Corbyn has a political honeymoon, they may find themselves marginalised in a party otherwise united behind its new leader, who won a slightly higher share of the vote in the first round than Tony Blair did in 1994.



Corbyn told the London conference at which his victory was announced that “this great democratic exercise” meant “the fightback of our party now gathers speed and gathers pace”.

The new leader now faces the task of constructing a broad-based shadow cabinet, pulling out of a major TV interview with Andrew Marr on the BBC on Sunday to start the process. Within two hours it was clear that Rachel Reeves, Emma Reynolds, Tristram Hunt, Chris Leslie and Liz Kendall as well as Cooper would not serve under his leadership.

Chuka Umunna, the shadow business secretary who congratulated Corbyn before adding that winning office was the ultimate way to put Labour values into action, is also expected to return to the backbenches.

Those who said they would be willing to join the new shadow team include MPs Liam Byrne and Mary Creagh, the former leadership candidate who dropped out mid-campaign.

Lucy Powell MP, vice-chair of Labour’s last general election campaign, said she could also serve under Corbyn if the position was right and certain “conditions” were met. Rosie Winterton is also being tipped to stay on in the testing position of Chief Whip.

With 554,272 eligible voters and 422,664 votes cast, Corbyn won 251,417, or 59.5%. He received the votes of 121,751 members, 88,449 registered supporters and 41,217 affiliated supporters. Nearly 87% of the new £3 registered supporters voted for Corbyn and just under 50% of all party members.

Andy Burnham’s overall vote count was 80,462 or 19%, Cooper’s was 71,928 or 17%; and Kendall’s was 18,857 or 4.5%.

Only 71,000 affiliated union supporters voted in the leadership contest, the lowest number in the party’s history and a decline that will be exploited by the government as it seeks to sever the party’s financial links with the union movement with its forthcoming trade union bill.

Accepting victory, Corbyn said: “We go forward now as a movement and a party, bigger than we have ever been in a very, very long time, stronger than we have been for a very long time, more determined than we have been for a very long time, to show to everyone that the objectives of our party are intact, our passion is intact, our demand for humanity is intact.”

In a largely unscripted speech he said the party would become more “inclusive, more involved, more democratic” and would “shape the future of everyone in this country”.

“We don’t have to be unequal. It doesn’t have to be unfair. Poverty isn’t inevitable. Things can, and they will, change.”

In a bid to show he wishes to link the parliamentary party to wider social movements, he left the victory ceremony to speak to a London rally supporting refugees in Europe.

Burnham made no announcement, but has already been recorded as describing Corbyn as a disaster for the party. Many MPs, however, including some on the right like Byrne, are likely to serve and Corbyn will make a point of giving prominent positions to women.

The GMB leader, Paul Kenny, urged senior MPs to give Corbyn a chance. “I think he is going to be far more inclusive leader. I think the tent could potentially be quite wide and that is good news for Labour,” he said.

There are concerns that Corbyn does not have the expertise around him in the short term to run a leader’s office, and will suffer in the critical opening weeks of his leadership if he faces big decisions on Trident, Syria and Europe.

Ed Miliband, who on Thursday told Corbyn he would not serve, said the party should respect his mandate, and that it was the task of the new leader to unite all wings of the party.

“I hope and expect that Jeremy will do everything he can to reach out and use the talents of people right across the party in the task of taking on the Tories and facing up to the very big challenges that we face,” he said.

Tom Watson was elected deputy leader in a tougher contest that saw him beat off a challenge from Stella Creasy and Caroline Flint.

Watson, now a critical powerbroker, said the result was a referendum on the political culture within the party. Watson won in the third round of voting with 50.7%, compared with Creasy’s 26.4% and Flint’s 22.8%.

The defence secretary, Michael Fallon, opened the Tory attack on Corbyn. “This is a very serious moment for our country. Labour are now a serious risk to our nation’s security, our economy’s security and your family’s security,” he said.

“Whether it’s weakening our defences, raising taxes on jobs and earnings, racking up more debt and welfare or driving up the cost of living by printing money, Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party will hurt working people.”

Those on the right of the Labour party acknowledged they had failed to come up with a compelling set of arguments in the election, and that the era of Blair-Brown politics was now over, requiring new alliances and thinking. Ideas of a coup or a split are dismissed, but they believe that only by staying away from the frontbench can they avoid the tyranny of unity that had silenced debate between 2010 and 2015.

Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said: “I’ve always worked with everybody in the Labour party and I’m not taking my bat and ball home. I don’t think that’s the right approach.

“I’ve said I wouldn’t expect to be part of Jeremy’s shadow cabinet, but I will be part of working for the Labour party because I always will. What I want to do now is concentrate on the Labour for Europe yes campaign. That is going to be a big challenge for us. The referendum is going to be immensely important. We are going to need to put that argument right across the country.”

Reeves, the shadow work and pensions secretary and a Burnham supporter also pulled out of frontline politics. “When I return from maternity leave in January, I will serve my constituents in Leeds West, party and new leadership from backbenches,” she said.

Hunt said: “I will not seek to be part of the frontbench. It is important to be honest about it. I have substantial political differences with Jeremy.

We need to congratulate [ on his victory. He has won fair and square and within the rules.

“He has won handsomely. Now he needs the respect and the space as Labour leader to build his team and go forward. I need to think long and hard about the nature of our loss and how we get back to being an electable Labour party.

“Like Tribune, like Campaign, like Class there are lots of ginger groups and intellectual groupings within the Labour party. We have to be mature that the Labour party is made up of many traditions. Jeremy said he wanted a democratic and open debate within the party and we would be very keen to contribute to that.”

Lord Prescott called for loyalty. “It’s sad if they are not prepared to take any notice of the membership,” he said. “Please Rachel think about it. The party has spoken. It’s an exciting time.”



Umunna said: “Congratulations to Jeremy Corbyn, on his election today … Now the contest is over, we must respect the result, come together and focus on providing the most credible and effective opposition to the Tories.

“Some say there there has to be a trade off between principles and power, but our history tells us this isn’t true.

“Following in the footsteps of Attlee, Wilson and other Labour legends, we must now also work to get Labour back into office, because that is the ultimate way of putting our values in to action, and that was the original intention of Keir Hardie and the party’s founders.”