by Kevin Meagher
The continuing chatter about whether Alan Johnson should return to the shadow cabinet prompts the intriguing question: where would Ed Miliband put him?
In government, Johnson held a number of senior roles including stints as secretary of state for work and pensions, education, health and a final stint as home secretary. As one of Labour’s best known faces, he would surely command a decent perch.
None of his previous postings, however, looks a likely bet. Rising stars Rachel Reeves and Tristram Hunt are making inroads in the welfare and education briefs while Andy Burnham at health and Yvette Cooper at home affairs are too powerful to move without causing Ed Miliband a major headache. Both are solid performers and harbour leadership hopes if Miliband doesn’t manage to cross the threshold of Number Ten next May.
The remaining top roles, shadowing the Treasury and the Foreign Office, are filled by Ed Balls and Douglas Alexander. And they aren’t going anywhere.
Miliband may calculate that he can move anyone he likes in the interests of bringing back a popular figure like Johnson to add weight to his team ahead of the general election. Of course, the dilemma will be doubled if Alastair Darling also returns – assuming the ‘No’ campaign he is leading in Scotland prevails next month.
Johnson’s attributes are obvious enough. A natural communicator, his easy-going, man-in-the-street style contrasts sharply with the crafted but stilted approach of most of the rest of the shadow cabinet. No-one describes him as weird or boring.
Darling, meanwhile, has the distinction of serving in cabinet throughout the Blair and Brown years (a feat only equalled by Jack Straw and Gordon Brown himself). His credentials as a genuine heavyweight (Chuka Umunna describes Darling as one of the party’s “biggest beatsts” in an interview with this morning’s Daily Telegraph) together with his quiet, reassuring tone makes him a valuable asset as questions of trust and competence will be at the centre of the election campaign.
But creating amorphous, non-departmental roles for either man would be a cop-out. The shadow cabinet is large enough without bolting on people for the sake of it. This presents Ed Miliband with the difficulty of bringing back two men in senior roles without upsetting the gender balance of his shadow cabinet.
Indeed, as George Eaton notes over at the New Statesman, Miliband still needs to bring forward another woman or two to meet his pledge of ensuring gender parity in the shadow cabinet. So for Johnson and Darling to come in, two men have to go out.
The obvious choice would be Sadiq Khan, the shadow justice secretary. It is not a slight on his competence or workrate (indeed, he is one of the best performers in Uncut’s shadow cabinet league). He is, however, running to become Labour’s candidate for mayor of London in 2016 and will doubtless need to devote his time to this. There is the added fact that he will need to play to the activist gallery as he does so.
But it’s hard to see where the other male vacancy comes from. Chuka Umunna, Michael Dugher, Chris Leslie and Jon Cruddas have key general election roles. Owen Smith and Jim Murphy offer critical links to Wales and Scotland, respectively. Jon Trickett, meanwhile, is a valued working-class voice around the shadow cabinet table.
Only three other men remain. Hilary Benn is the longest-serving member of the shadow cabinet. Could he really be persuaded to make way for men older than him? This leaves Vernon Coaker at defence and Ivan Lewis at Northern Ireland. Neither is holding a frontline election portfolio, but both have made decent headway in what are traditionally difficult briefs for Labour.
But if Johnson and Darling are to return to the shadow cabinet, the law of natural selection means these big beasts will devour two other men. The question is, who?
Kevin Meagher is associate editor of Labour Uncut
