MPs from the region dominate new Shadow Cabinet

LABOUR'S new Shadow Cabinet is dominated by MPs from Yorkshire.

New Labour leader and Doncaster MP Ed Miliband will be joined by seven other MPs from the region elected to the Cabinet, along with Chief Whip Rosie Winterton who was already in place.

Among those elected in results last night were Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper who were both successful in the secret ballot of Labour’s Parliamentary Party.

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The married couple are thought to be vying for the coveted Shadow Chancellor role.

Former Ministers Alan Johnson and Hilary Benn were also elected alongside former Europe Minister Caroline Flint, the Don Valley MP, and Shadow Housing Minister John Healey, MP for Wentworth. Wakefield’s Mary Creagh will take a major role for the first time.

Ms Cooper topped the ballot, followed by Mr Healey and Mr Balls. Other senior figures successfully returned include former Cabinet Ministers Andy Burnham and Jim Murphy, along with Mr Miliband’s leadership campaign manager Sadiq Khan.

But there were also losers. Ex-Welsh Secretary Peter Hain, former Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw and ex-Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward, who did not make the 19-strong list. Diane Abbott, who stood against Mr Miliband in the leadership contest, also missed out.

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The results are part of a remarkable dominance of the party by Yorkshire politicians.

Under Labour rules, its MPs vote to decide who should be in the Shadow Cabinet when the party is in opposition. A minimum quota of six women was imposed as part of efforts to promote equality. The party overshot that figure, returning eight in total – including Ms Flint, who quit Gordon Brown’s government in 2008 complaining that female Ministers were being treated as “window dressing”.