Refuseniks say they are tired of being seen as ideological virus but others fear being blamed for not respecting leadership vote

As many as eight members of the shadow cabinet are considering declaring that they cannot serve on the frontbench if Jeremy Corbyn is elected as Labour leader on Saturday.

But they are coming under pressure from Corbyn supporters and loyalists to put party unity first and work with the MP from Islington North.

Chris Leslie, the shadow chancellor, said: “If Corbyn wins, as I said early in the summer, I do not feel I could serve in his shadow cabinet. I don’t believe he shares my instincts about responsibility in the economy, social issues or foreign affairs.”

Emma Reynolds, a prominent pro-European will also signal on Wednesday her fundamental differences with Corbyn: “The referendum is not an issue that the Labour party or its new leadership can duck or fudge. As internationalists who believe in solidarity and collectivism we should campaign unequivocally to remain a member.”

Apart from Leslie, the shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, and the shadow education secretary, Tristram Hunt, have said they will not serve. Cooper, Corbyn’s rival for the leadership, has been scathing about his anti-austerity politics.



Corbyn, meanwhile, will make an immediate appeal for party unity if elected on Saturday, and there are suggestions that many controversial issues on which he has campaigned must now be subject to a long-term policy consultation.

The leading candidate for the leadership wants to stage a defence review, looking at the question of the replacement of the Trident nuclear submarines and the UK’s role in Nato. This might free some of the ideological critics to the right of Corbyn in the party to cooperate.

Many of his natural political allies, such as the left-leaning pressure group Compass, were expected to call for Corbyn to appoint a broad-based shadow cabinet, nurture the New Left social movement and conduct an expansive two-year policy review.

Corbyn travelled to the symbolic marginal seat of Nuneaton on Tuesday evening to show he believed he has a message that could win over Conservative voters who did not back Labour in the May general election.

However, in a lively and still unresolved debate, some shadow cabinet members remain determined not to serve. The shadow cabinet refuseniks say they are fed up with being denounced as careerists or as an ideological virus.

They say they bit their tongue during Ed Miliband’s leadership, which proved to be of no benefit to themselves or the political direction of the party. Some say in private that they cannot contemplate wriggling in broadcast interviews as they repeatedly defend Corbyn’s politics, past statements and fitness for public office.

“Mopping up or making excuses for Jeremy Corbyn’s views is not sustainable,” said one shadow cabinet member. “There will be others that join in, but I think we should wait and watch. If you join in, you lose your own credibility and you legitimise him.”

Other possible refuseniks are the shadow business secretary, Chuka Umunna, the shadow Northern Ireland secretary, Ivan Lewis, the shadow international development secretary, Mary Creagh, the shadow Europe minister, Pat McFadden, and the shadow Treasury chief secretary, Shabana Mahmood. Some have so far said nothing, waiting to see if Corbyn wins, the scale of his mandate and how confrontational his supporters become.

A pivotal figure in all this may be Rachel Reeves, the shadow work and pensions secretary who is on maternity leave. She is a supporter of candidate Andy Burham, but her strong views on the need to bring back Ukip voters would put her at odds with Corbyn, for instance on welfare reform. She is also unlikely to support the ending of the independence of the Bank of England, a prerequisite of the “people’s quantitative easing” proposal that Corbyn has put at the centre of his agenda to generate new capital investment.

Many senior figures may yet cooperate, fearing they will be blamed by party members for not respecting a democratic decision, and find themselves marginalised. Tom Watson, the likely deputy leader and man who will have to hold back some of the left, is privately advising against a knee-jerk reaction.

The cooperators are likely to be led by Burnham and his allies. The shadow health secretary has made loyalty his watchword and if Corbyn fails, he may believe the shadow cabinet members that served the new leader will be the ones best placed to pick up the pieces.

Much will also depend on how Corbyn behaves.

He has been the midwife of a new social movement, and a debate is already starting on how to sustain its impetus. One publication, Labour Left Briefing, suggests: “What we are experiencing is undoubtedly the most important political development since the 1984-5 miners’ strike. Unlike elsewhere in Europe, the explosion against the austerity consensus has been triggered from within Labour.

“We need a conference of the campaign very soon after the election result and the foundations laid for a new rank and file movement rooted in the Labour party.”

The traditional route would be to capture the commanding heights of the party’s committees. “There are people around Corbyn that still think the route to socialism lies through Labour’s conference arrangements committee,” said one party mayoral campaigner.

On this thinking, Corbyn will enhance the policy-making status of the neutered annual party conference, stage activist sapping rallies, downgrade the national policy forum, introduce automatic reselection of Labour MPs and give free membership, and so a vote, to the 120,000 people who paid £3 to register as supporters in the leadership election.

However, Corbyn himself has denied he wants automatic reselections of sitting MPs, although many will face selection battles due to government-enforced boundary changes in any event.

Corbyn is also being urged by others such as Compass to try to reimagine Labour as a different organisation.

In an open letter to Corbyn – the first of a stream of advice to the anticipated leader – Compass describes Labour as a 20th-century, top-down machine that disempowered those involved.

The leadership contest of 2015 came alive because of people joining, the letter says. And many will leave as quickly as they joined if the openness and empowering spirit of the campaign is lost. “Today, attachment is fleeting. People must feel involved and find their voice or else they will go elsewhere.”

But all the leadership candidates accept the party has changed. They acknowledge to different extents they misread the mood of the party in the wake of the general election defeat, and over-emphasised the need to get back in touch with an electorate that had voted Tory.

Liz Kendall, for instance, will make a speech on this theme on Thursday an hour before the leadership polls close. For the Blairites the postmortem examination starts here.

