Yorkshire MPs to the fore as new faces join Miliband's front bench

Jonathan Reed Political Editor

THREE fledgling MPs have won a place on Labour’s front bench as new leader Ed Miliband added yet more Yorkshire blood into his top team.

With ten Yorkshire MPs already in the shadow cabinet, rising star Rachel Reeves, the Leeds West MP and former Bank of England economist, has been appointed a Shadow Work and Pensions Minister after impressing since arriving at Westminster.

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Even before winning her seat in May she was being tipped for a rapid rise up the Labour ladder and after backing Mr Miliband for the leadership she played a role in his campaign team.

New Barnsley East MP Michael Dugher – chief political spokesman to Gordon Brown in Number Ten – also becomes a Shadow Defence Minister.

He fought for the Labour nomination in Doncaster North in 2005 only to be beaten by Mr Miliband, but the two have remained on good terms since.

Chesterfield MP Toby Perkins becomes the third new face to immediately find a place on the front bench, becoming a Shadow Education Minister.

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With talk of a Yorkshire mafia at the top of the party under Mr Miliband’s leadership, several experienced hands have also been given jobs on the front bench.

Former Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe, the Bradford South MP, will work under Ed Balls in the Shadow Home Office team along with Diana Johnson, the Hull North MP who narrowly survived a Liberal Democrat challenge at the General Election.

Penistone and Stocksbridge MP Angela Smith has joined the whips office headed up by Doncaster Central MP Rosie Winterton.

Mr Miliband – who hailed the front bench as a “new generation of talent” – has also installed former Shipley MP Chris Leslie as a Shadow Treasury Minister.