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Shadow Cabinet rankings – February 2012

March 12, 2012 11:15 am

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Which shadow cabinet members are most popular with LabourList readers? This month there’s little change at the top, with Andy Burnham’s steadfast defence of the NHS keeping him at the top of the shadow cabinet rankings for a second successive month. Tom Watson has overtaken Yvette Cooper to move into second place – but as a whole the top 10 is looking fairly solid now. There is one new entry though – Emily Thornberry receives a boost this month (moving up four places) after a well received appearance on Question Time.

Other big moves this month are Vernon Coaker, Stephen Twigg, Michael Dugher and Tessa Jowell (all up) and Sadiq Khan, Jon Trickett, Margaret Curran and Caroline Flint (all down). Liam Byrne and Ivan Lewis still make up the bottom two.

The full table is below:

1. Andy Burnham (-)
2. Tom Watson (Up 1)
3. Yvette Cooper (Down 1)
4. Hilary Benn (-)
5. Chuka Umunna (-)
6. Ed Balls (Up 1)
7. Rachel Reeves (Down 1)
8. Douglas Alexander (-)
9. Harriet Harman (-)
10. Emily Thornberry (Up 4)
11. Jim Murphy (Down 1)
12. Angela Eagle (-)
13. Peter Hain (-)
14. Sadiq Khan (Down 3)
15. Liz Kendall (Up 1)
16. Maria Eagle (Down 1)
17. Vernon Coaker (Up 3)
18. Stephen Twigg (Up 3)
19. Michael Dugher (Up 4)
20. Tessa Jowell (Up 4)
21. Jon Trickett (Down 4)
22. Mary Creagh (-)
23. Margaret Curran (Down 5)
24. Caroline Flint (Down 5)
25. Rosie Winterton (-)
26. Ivan Lewis (-)
27. Liam Byrne (-)

565 people voted this month between March 1st and March 7th. Thanks to everyone who voted. Don’t forget to check back tomorrow when we’ll be announcing our February MP of the month.

Related posts:

  1. Shadow cabinet rankings – January 2012
  2. Shadow cabinet rankings – October 2011
  3. Shadow cabinet rankings – November 2011
  4. How did the shadow cabinet do in 2011?
  5. Candidates for the shadow cabinet
  • http://www.facebook.com/Chrispythegull Chris Bristol

    I didn’t realize that Tom Watson and Emily Thornberry were members of the shadow cabinet.  

    What’s the value in posting these lists?  Does popularity really matter?  Yvette Cooper is the only cabinet minister making any sort of an impact at current.  If ANYONE is changing minds about the NHS, it is most certainly not Andy freakin Burnham, who lacks all credibility given that he’s responsible for starting the ball rolling on introducing competition in the NHS in the first place.   And Hilary Benn?  Does he even exist anymore?  Would have fooled me…  How in the blue hell does he take 4th?  Either this site has no visitors or you all just play bingo with Labour MPs’ names.

  • Jeff_Harvey

    Obviously Liam Byrne’s “responsibility” agenda is going down well with the Labour-minded.

  • CamAnne

    “Andy Burnham’s steadfast defence of the NHS” is all very well nationally, we need him defending our local NHS too. In Gloucestershire we’re fighting a battle to stop our NHS services being transferred into a social enterprise without any proper consultation. Even if the Health and Social Care Bill were to be defeated it could be too late for us. We’re not the only area with this problem and we need the Shadow Health team down here standing side by side with us to say what’s happening is wrong.  Solidarity is what we need. Now.

  • AlanGiles
  • ThePurpleBooker

    I’m sorry but it is ridiculous how Liam Byrne is so low. Tom Watson is an irrelevant member of the shadow cabinet, he’s only there to save Ed Miliband’s questionable leadership over Murdoch. Margaret Curran is not impressive, Ivan Lewis is not good, Winterton is whip – she is supposed to be disliked and Jon Trickett and Michael Dugher are awful ‘nobodies’.

    • AlanGiles

      “I’m sorry but it is ridiculous how Liam Byrne is so low.”

      Things like this might explain it – if you are calling for ordinary people to be responsible, it behoves you not to be irresponsible yourself:

      http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/cabinet-expenses/5601884/Liam-Byrnes-expenses.html 

    • Jeff_Harvey

      Satire? Exaggerism? Or a comment supposed to be taken seriously? I can’t tell. The commenter is a closed book to me.

    • Dave Postles

       I thought 27th out of 27 was pretty respectable for Byrne after his recent policy statement about work for 6 months in a prescribed and probably inappropriate job or lose your JSA for 6 months, which seems more draconian than the current system.  It’s mere playing to the gallery of prejudice.  Politicians are supposed to give leadership not only succumb to the latest plebiscite.  Miss Reilly could obviously be more appropriately doing voluntary work in her art gallery/museum: as a public service and as one of the recognized lines of access to museum employment (experience in museum work is vital before people will even consider you for in-house training positions or the Museum Studies MAs at various HEIs).

      • AlanGiles

        There are rumours, Dave, that the saintly Liam is considering standing down from Parliament to run for Mayor at Birmingham (well he’d never make Stallion of Birmingham)

        Perhaps given his consistent popularity with the bulk of LL readers, that might be a good idea, though what Birmingham has done to deserve such a fate is a mystery to me.

        • Jeff_Harvey

          Ed Miliband’s judgement as far as appointments go seems eccentric at best but his decision to entrust Liam Byrne (of all people!) with the Labour Party’s own policy review seems to me to be kind of mental to be candid and colloquial. 

          The policy review: it’s sink or swim for Ed Miliband

          In a couple of years the nation’s political conversation will have shifted from fashionably sticking it to the jobless, bashing the bankers, and promising to succour “hard-working families” who “do the right thing” – which is all Labour’s “responsibility agenda” actually amounts to when all is said and done – to a discussion in respect to the conspicuous failure of some very tough and far-reaching Coalition policies to reduce social evils like unemployment, poverty, homelessness, hospital waiting lists – you name it! – in any positive or significant manner. Based on past experience I would imagine that introduction of the Universal Credit will also be trouble-ridden and faltering at best, if it succeeds at all, based as it is on an incredibly complicated computer system where users are supposed to claim benefits and update their details in realtime via the internet without assistance or supervision.  

          If the Labour Party listens to Byrne and opts to try to out-tough the Coalition when in a few years the Coalition’s over-tough policies and programmes have been seen to fail the future for  Labour looks bleak indeed. Moreover, if the Party cannot offer something better, more compassionate, and much more humane than the Coalition it will deserve it fate.

          But whatever else the Party does it shouldn’t be listening to Byrne.

          At all.

          • AlanGiles

            I despair sometimes – I posted a link to a news item yesterday where Ed Miliband had cancelled a meeting with doctors to discuss the NHS Reforms at the weekend, only to be seen 3 hours later at a football match.

            He was “ill” when he cancelled, according to his spokesperson, but my old gran used to say if I was to ill to go to school, I was too ill to go out in the garden to play.

            At best it gives the impression football is more important in EMs list of priorities, than the NHS and at worst, it makes you speculate why he backed out of that meeeting.

          • Jeff_Harvey

            It is kind of precious and funny to witness Miliband “pulling a sickie” after tirelessly and tiresomely banging on about the need for benefit claimants and such like to be “responsible”. How he could have been stupid enough to believe that anyone with such a high public profile as the leader of the Labour Party could pull off a stunt like this without being discovered is if anything more shocking.

            What a plonker.

            PULL YOUR F*****G SOCKS UP, ED!

            * Shakes head and sighs. *

          • AlanGiles

            As he is hardly a runaway success, I just can’t imagine what he was thinking of. His big brother and his supporters must be rubbing their hands with glee. If I were one of the doctors he stood up, I would seriously be wondering if he is as concerned about the reforms as he gives the impression he is – I would certainly be very offended and rather hurt by the rebuff.

          • Jeff_Harvey

            To be honest I’ve thought for quite some time that it’s been over for Ed Miliband before it really started. I have fostered this opinion since reading the transcript of  Miliband’s truly appalling keynote speech about responsibility in modern Britain. 

            Ed Miliband speech – Responsibility in 21st Century Britain

            I would imagine Byrne must have been whispering into Miliband’s ear as he committed this verbiage to the page, thinking, I suppose, that by spouting tough sounding stuff like this in the public arena he might “triangulate” the Labour Party into a better position vis-à-vis welfare reform, with implicit hints about favouring those who “do the right thing” while cracking down on certain fashionably demoniac although for the most part wholly innocent minorities in society.

            Truly, truly dismal and dishonest stuff.

            Very Liam Byrne in fact.

          • ovaljason

            Not only did Ed pull a sickie to blow-off the NHS meeting…

            …he was photographed arriving at the football a couple of hours later in – wait for it – a Rolls Royce.

            Ed M is so utterly devoid of leadership skills that he cannot connect the dots between cancelling an NHS meeting and travelling by Rolls Royce to the footie.

            Finally, his previously loyal supporters on this site are waking up to the corrosive effect Ed is having on the Party.

            It’s about time.

  • Politique

    Andy Burnham, Jon Trickett, Peter Hain and Hilary Benn are the only credible, talented and experienced members of the Shadow Cabinet. Labour will never get elected with the current format. They do not appeal enough to the general public and Ed Miliband is really struggling to stay in power, and struggliing to strike a chord with the general public. 10 years too early for him. Another William Hague perhaps. It is a shame because Ed is a nice guy as a person.

  • http://raymerrall.com Ray Merrall

    # Chris Booker: The reason that this sort of poll is that it is useful is to find out who, in this case, of the Shadow Cabinet, is doing anything worth while or if they are letting the dye from the green leather in the Commons to soak in and petrify their respective brains. So, can anyone tell me who is seen to be pushing the Labour Agenda and who should be spending more time with their families?

    And as for Yvette Cooper, since doing a deal with Murdoch to write for the Bung on Sunday (and destroying Miliband’s credibility in the Commons at PMQ’s,) the betting is on for her replacement.

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