Alan Johnson surprise choice to lead Labour fight over cuts

Mr Johnson will lead Labour's attack on George Osborne's economic policies after Mr Miliband overlooked the two favourites for the job – fellow Yorkshire MPs Ed Balls and wife Yvette Cooper.

Mr Balls said he was "surprised but pleased" to be given the job of Shadow Home Secretary while Ms Cooper – who topped the Shadow Cabinet elections – also got the top job of Shadow Foreign Secretary as Mr Miliband finalised his top team.

The move is a sign that Mr Miliband is asserting his authority by keeping Mr Balls away from the Treasury brief, given his criticism during the leadership contest of Labour's election promise to halve the deficit in four years as being too aggressive. In contrast, Mr Johnson, who backed David Miliband for the leadership, warned before the election of the need to take a "sensible approach" and needed a "valid, logical, argument".

Hull West and Hessle MP Mr Johnson, who covered Health, Education and the Home Office during his years in the Cabinet, has just 11 days to prepare Labour's response to the Comprehensive Spending Review which will set out spending cuts of 25 per cent over four years.

Last night he said his first job would be to "pick up a primer of economics for beginners" but insisted Alistair Darling's plan to halve the deficit in four years would be his "starting point" for considering Labour's approach to the economy.

"Ed and I will work together to build a plan for growth and for jobs in our economy," he said. "We will offer a real and responsible alternative to the dangerous plans of this coalition Government which is damaging the economic future of millions of families."

John Healey, another Yorkshire MP who did well in the Shadow Cabinet election, was rewarded with the Health brief, while Don Valley's Caroline Flint – who quit the front bench under Gordon Brown – returns to front-line politics shadowing Communities and Local Government and Mary Creagh, the Wakefield MP, will shadow Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in her first senior role.

Leeds Central MP Hilary Benn is Shadow Leader of the Commons while Hemsworth's Jon Trickett will attend Shadow Cabinet in a Cabinet Office role, giving Yorkshire 10 seats at the top table.

Mr Miliband, MP for Doncaster North, said: "My team is united in one central mission for the future – to win back the trust of the British people and take Labour back to power."

The appointment of Mr Johnson stunned Westminster but is understood to have been under consideration by Mr Miliband for a few days.

Mr Balls, MP for Morley and Outwood, played down suggestions that he was disappointed not to get Shadow Chancellor. "To me it's never been about the job you are doing and the particular personality, it is about winning the argument," he said.

"Ed Miliband and Alan Johnson and a unified Cabinet now have to make sure that we win that argument. For me, this home affairs brief is very important."

In other key appointments, defeated leadership contender Andy Burnham becomes Shadow Education Secretary and election co-ordinator, while two of David Miliband's lieutenants in the leadership contest – Douglas Alexander and Jim Murphy – get work and pensions, and defence respectively.

Ed Miliband's own campaign manager, Sadiq Khan, gets the plum post of shadow lord chancellor and justice secretary.