All the updates as Jeremy Corbyn reshuffles his shadow cabinet.
Welcome to the NS' reshuffle liveblog.
21:57: So, that's it. The end. No new moves, no new appointments, no sackings either. Jeremy Corbyn held long meetings with Maria Eagle and Hilary Benn - but we don't know what the upshot was. Charlie Falconer was tipped for the sack - but we don't know if he's still there. I opened this liveblog at 2:30. It is now close to ten. I'm off to become a homegrown extremist. Thanks for sticking with us to the bitter end - for those wondering, I had a lamb dansak in the end. Goodnight.
21:55: Update from our man in Jeremy Corbyn's staircase.
Corbyn aide: "Jeremy has had several discussions about the reshuffle today and there will be announcements in due course."
— George Eaton (@georgeeaton) January 4, 2016
That means no announcements tonight.
— George Eaton (@georgeeaton) January 4, 2016
21:52: What I like about this Benn extract is that it reveals Wilson at his rudest and power at its most brutal. A reminder that in a sense all reshuffles are "revenge reshuffles", with the exception of the ones that are embezzlement reshuffles, adultery reshuffles, or "I"m Tony Blair and it's a quiet summer" reshuffles.
21:47: Dave Loren, who you can find on Twitter here, has thoughtfully dug out the 1975 diary recording Tony Benn's sacking:
21:31:“The truth is that these events are always very bad and perhaps the worst of all the duties of a PM," Harold Macmillan once wrote, and the reality is that the headlines after reshuffles are pretty much always bad - unless you pull off an entirely unbriefed surprise like sacking Michael Gove.
Corbyn of course never hired Michael Gove. Rookie error, Jeremy, rookie error.
21:24: Who coined term "revenge reshuffle"? It was Michael Dugher, according to Harry Cole.
Labour MPs crediting @MichaelDugher with "framing it very badly" for Corbyn with the "revenge reshuffle" tonight.
— Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) January 4, 2016
21:20: For those of you just joining us: here's what you've missed. Lord Falconer, Tony Blair's former flatmate, is tipped for the push at Shadow Justice. Hilary Benn and Maria Eagle have left following long meetings with Jeremy Corbyn, their fate unknown. And not a single appointment has been announced yet. I opened this liveblog seven hours ago and am gradually losing my mind.
The expectation is the news will come soonish, though, so keep hitting refresh.
21:10: There's a very good reshuffle anecdote in Tony Benn's 1975 diary, but my copy is regrettably in the office. So you can look forward to that tomorrow when this liveblog enters its second day. (There will still be no appointments to report).
21:09: My hunch - and it's just a hunch - is that no news is good news as far as Benn and Eagle are concerned. If either had been removed from the Shadow Cabinet entirely, one assumes that a sacked member of staff would have leaked it by now. However, that doesn't mean that either (or both) have kept their existing portfolio.
21:01: Speaking of the blessed Toblerone, this is one of my favourite reshuffle reflections:
20:58: The problem is that political journalists were spoiled by the Cameron-MIliband era. Both politicians had good reshuffle operations. Tony Blair, for all his election-winning heroics, did not, as he himself admits in his memoirs:
20:56: Mark Ferguson, formerly of LabourList and the Liz Kendall leadership campaign, thinks he has worked out Team Corbyn's strategy:
Reshuffle tips: if there’s anything contentious it’ll probably be hidden until after 10 to avoid the news, tomorrow’s papers and Newsnight
— Mark Ferguson (@Markfergusonuk) January 4, 2016
20:53: The real victim of the reshuffle: in the other room, my partner is taking a phone call. "Yes, Stephen's here. He's doing a liveblog. Of the reshuffle. No, it hasn't actually happened yet."
20:48:I've just discovered that "Chris Bryant" scans exactly with "Green Giant".
20:45: News of another shadow cabinet move.
I am now back from the gym.
— Chris Bryant MP (@RhonddaBryant) January 4, 2016
20: 44:
I don't want Maria to be moved because noone will ever get to use the phrase "Summon the War Eagle!" (Unlikely under Jez, I know) #reshuffle
— Lucy Green (@Greenietweets) January 4, 2016
But if she's moved to DCMS, she'l be a Culture Vulture!
20: 38: I'd say it feels more like a trip round Ikea with your partner. You know it will end eventually. But you don't quite believe it.
Reshuffle so far's been a bit like your boyfriend texting "we need to talk" then having a chat about something other than the relationship.
— Marie Le Conte (@youngvulgarian) January 4, 2016
20: 35:Is it too early in the night to do my "Hearing that Ian Murray has been appointed shadow secretary of state for Scotland" joke yet?
20:32: Thank you to the many, many Labour staffers who have texted some variant on "Maria Eagle looking grumpy? Must be a day of the week with a y in it".
20:30: Eagle latest. It doesn't look good for her. And probably not for Benn, by extension...
Maria Eagle emerges: "I don't have anything to say to you," she tells hacks. But doesn't look happy.
— George Eaton (@georgeeaton) January 4, 2016
20:29: Maria Eagle has just left her chat with Corbyn. It feels likely that an extended negotiation with first Benn and then Eagle about possible future roles is underway, while Winterton - the other figure tipped for the sack - appears to be home safe, although the future of her deputies and the width of her brief are still up in the air.
20:20: It looks like Jess Philips will not be joining the Opposition frontbench.
It's a good job I'm not being called to meeting with Jeremy these Billy bookcases won't put themselves up.
— Jess Phillips MP (@jessphillips) January 4, 2016
20:15: The urge to just make up a fake MP and make them shadow minister for communities and integration or something is getting stronger.
20:12: More from Eagle's brief chat with journalists. Is she keeping her job? "I don't know. We'll have to see."
20:08: Maybe this is all a very clever brand awareness exercise? Maybe they're not reshuffling at all.
20:00: Maria Eagle has arrived to see Corbyn. Asked if she was going to see him by waiting journalists she replied: "Yes, it's obvious, isn't it?"
19:55: Does this tweet from Mary Creagh suggest that Benn is a goner after all?
In my experience of 5 shad cabinet reshuffles you only meet the leader if you're being moved. If you're staying put it's a phone call.
— Mary Creagh (@MaryCreaghMP) January 4, 2016
19:48: Progress director Richard Angell is in a wry mood.
So it seems @SeumasMilne's grid has 'reshuffle' in for 3 days. Unlikely to make tomorrow papers so will now be Wednesday's Labour story
— Richard Angell (@RichardAngell) January 4, 2016
19:42: News! I have decided what to order for dinner as I can't be bothered to cook and feel I deserve a treat. I'm having a curry.
19: 35: Away from the reshuffle, great work from new Labour MP and frontbencher Anna Turley:
Redcar steelworkers to be paid following MP's intervention https://t.co/xrTCiaoYR4
— Anna Turley MP (@annaturley) January 4, 2016
19:32: Ken Livingstone tells Channel 4 that "between now and 2020 there will be several reshuffles, some of them caused by illness and death". Is he....is he going to start having Corbyn's opponents killed?!
19:27: It may only be a limited reprieve, of course. Liam Byrne's allies persuaded Ed Miliband not to sack him in 2011 - two years later, Miliband went ahead and did it.
19:22: Comrade George with the latest. If Benn has survived - which is still only an "If" - it appears to be because his allies rallied round to him, forcing the leader into a rethink.
Senior Labour source says "golden rule" of reshuffles is "never ever pre-brief anything until you know you've pulled it off".
— George Eaton (@georgeeaton) January 4, 2016
19:20:I'm back! Did you miss me? (Don't answer that.)
19:13: That's all from me, folks. I have a date with some sausages, and Stephen Bush has a date with YOU.
19:10: It's not the despair that gets you in the end, it's the hope.
Corbyn aide tells me there will hopefully be reshuffle announcement "soon".
— George Eaton (@georgeeaton) January 4, 2016
19:07: How on earth has Stephen done this all afternoon? I did think there was a haunted look in his eyes as he plaintively held out his cup on the tea round earlier.
19:05: Is the reshuffle going to be a noshuffle? No, wait, that doesn't work. Minimeshuffle? Weeshuffle? The BBC's Laura Kuenssberg is now reporting that Benn might not be moving after all.
19:00: George, our man on the scene, says Benn gave no comment as he left. Unlike the last reshuffle, the Corbyn team are controlling the flow of information well so far. Let's see if that holds . . .
18:59: My mole reports that Hilary Benn has been spotted leaving Parliament by the Derby gate. NEWS might be incoming.
18:56: Harriet Harman is on Newsnight tonight, and it sounds as though she will be on fighting form. She's already made known her unhappiness with the lack of a woman in the Big Four jobs, and the failure of her plan to enshrine a gender-balanced top team in the party's rulebook. Here's her former aide Ayesha Hazarika enjoying a pink limousine to get to the programme (in mockery of the much-maligned pink bus).
Me and my @BBCNewsnight pink limousine.... pic.twitter.com/SF04mDYuce
— Ayesha Hazarika (@ayeshahazarika) January 4, 2016
18:52: Media management, Tony-style.
18:50: Reading more of The Insider to pass the time as the office empties. Enjoyed this small apercu into Alastair Campbell's world in January 2000:
18:45: Seriously, though, it has been 40 minutes now.
18:40: Labour blogger John Blake has also been following the reshuffle for too long, as he's started to post a quite detailed series of tweets wondering if Rosie Winterton and co have done a Murder on the Orient Express-style hit job on their leader.
The liveblogs continue as, 1 by 1, the soft left turn up, come in and get handed a bit to bury outside. "Like the Great Escape," Rosie says.
— John David Blake (@johndavidblake) January 4, 2016
18:40:Diane Abbott is also enjoying some #reshufflelols
I'm a proud @Arsenal fan... But nice idea xxx https://t.co/nlvBGv37rz
— Diane Abbott MP (@HackneyAbbott) January 4, 2016
18:35: The reshuffle is now entering its sixth hour, as is the vigil being kept by lobby journalists in the vicinity of Corbyn's office in Westminster. For some reason, this passage from Piers Morgan's The Insider springs to mind:
"Saturday, 1 January 2000
The Millennium Dome was opened on Millennium Eve with a huge party. I was invited but couldn't think of anything worse in the entire world than spending the dawn of the next 1000 years with a bunch of politicians.
I heard today that all the editors who did make the effort got left for hours at Stratford station with a plastic cup of warm wine. That will be the end of the Dome, then."
18:30:Here's Chris Bryant, taunting us with his ability to leave his desk.
I'm going to the gym.
— Chris Bryant MP (@RhonddaBryant) January 4, 2016
18:26: OK, that's a lie. I already had a gingerbread man that I found lying on the web desk earlier.
18:24: Helen here. No more news to report but thought I should let Stephen get home in case this lasts until tomorrow morning. I'm not saying it will affect my opinion of Jeremy Corbyn's leadership, but I will note that there are sausages and mash waiting for me at home, and I haven't had any mid-afternoon snacks because it's January and I'm on the usual laughable diet.
18:18: Right, I'm going to finish this liveblog off at home. Until I get there, our deputy editor, Helen Lewis, will be in charge. Keep refreshing!
18:15: Obviously I have a personal interest here but if reshuffles have any real value it is surely to get a photo of your shiny new team on the 10 O'Clock News and then a little mention on music radio the day after? Letting it drag on like this sub-optimal, to put it mildly.
18:09: I have waited four hours to use this photo:
18:06: NEWS! Hilary Benn is meeting with Jeremy Corbyn. Will he stay or will he go?
17:55: George Eaton, special correspondent for ruining my evening, has the latest:
Hilary Benn, Andy Burnham and the Eagles haven't been called. Reshuffle looking very unlikely to be finished tonight.
— George Eaton (@georgeeaton) January 4, 2016
17:53: The reshuffle looks to be coming down to a debate about whether to move Benn - and if they can pull it off.
17:50: Jon Lansman, the director and general grand panjandrum of Momentum, has waded into the "To Benn or not to Benn" question:
What exactly is the case for having a shadow foreign sec whose position on going to war in Syria is supported by <29% of PLP?
— Jon Lansman (@jonlansman) January 4, 2016
17:48: "Rather more chipper?" The liveblog has turned me into a character from the Famous Five.
17:45: The fear for many Labour staffers is not that their bosses were under threat but that they might quit if Rosie Winterton and Hilary Benn were ousted. The majority are now sounding rather more chipper.
17:39: Thank you to the people who have asked about my dinner plans - it looks like I will be ordering food to the office thanks to the good people at Deliveroo.
17:34: Ken Livingstone tells the BBC that the reshuffle is unlikely to be finished by 10pm. That distant whistling sound you can hear? It's me, screaming.
17:31: Meetings with MPs seem to be running behind - no-one is quite sure what's happening. Some Labourites are getting disgruntled.
Senior labour figure on reshuffle, 'this is a total disaster'..on Benn 'there will have to be a climbdown or carnage'
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) January 4, 2016
17:26: Spare a thought for shadow ministers' staff, who have spent the Christmas holidays worried for their jobs, and are still waiting to hear. And also for the livebloggers. The poor, bedraggled livebloggers.
17:14:My brother from another mother Conor Pope has had the smart idea of checking tomorrow's parliamentary business - those are the jobs that need to be filled first. Health and Housing. As I reported earlier, Heidi Alexander is tipped to stay put, but this suggests that John Healey will remain in place too.
17:10: An idea...maybe when Corbyn's aides talked about a "revenge reshuffle" they meant "revenge on the political journalists"?
17:05: LabourList's Conor Pope suggests that Willy Bach could return in lieu of Lord Falconer, who may well be on his way out.
16:59: Harriet Harman has called for a ban on an all-male Labour leadership team, telling Newsnight:
One of the hopes for this reshuffle is it may partially fix the diversity problem at the top of the party, where all the major offices of state are currently held by men.
16:55: Operation Save Hilary continues, as Jamie Reed, the MP for Copeland who quit the frontbench just minutes after Corbyn was elected, calls on his leader to keep Benn in post:
Reed says that while Benn and the government met with Labour MPs to discuss why airstrikes were the right course of action, Corbyn refused to do the same to make the case against bombing.
16:52: News! Barry Gardiner has liked my tweet saying that he would be a good hire as shadow secretary of state for DECC. Is this a sign? I mean, I always* like it when people** on Twitter suggest I should be given my own TV show, and I haven't been given one - yet. So, make of that what you will.
*Once.
*One person.
16:47: I didn't say it was a good joke.
16:45: I'm reminded of an old joke from Spitting Image. "Nothing has happened," says the Conservative representative early on in an general election programme.
"That's not true!" protests the Labour MP, "A lot has happened!"
"It's the same old two-party story," says the Liberal Democrat, "Actually, a little bit has happened."
16:37: Team Corbyn doing a remarkably good job of keeping this reshuffle leak-free. Which is heartening for Labour people but frustrating for livebloggers.
16:34: Journalists waiting outside Jeremy Corbyn's office have been given chocolate by a mysterious figure!
Amazing. Unknown knight in shining armour comes to deliver chocolates to waiting journos @tamcohen#reshufflepic.twitter.com/EZbkchKQeq
— Sophy Ridge (@SophyRidgeSky) January 4, 2016
16:31: Former aide to Tony Blair Matthew Doyle is not happy. Not happy at all.
Victims of the #revengereshuffle so far: staffers Xmas spoilt with stories they'll be unemployed in NY, plus today's fares campaign effort.
— Matthew Doyle (@doylematthew) January 4, 2016
16:30: Comrade George has thoughts re: Falconer.
If Falconer (shadow justice) goes, Thornberry would be an obvious replacement with her legal background.
— George Eaton (@georgeeaton) January 4, 2016
16:24: If Falconer does leave, it would really mark the final end of the Blairites - I don't mean as in "people on the right of the Labour party/people on the centre left", but as in "people who owe their promotion to their political and/or personal closeness to Tony Blair".
16:23: The grandfather of liveblogging, the Guardian's Andrew Sparrow (the blogfather?) has dug out this remarkable interview with the perhaps soon-to-be-sacked Lord Falconer in which he disagreed with Jeremy Corbyn no fewer than twelve times.
16:21: "You know more than me," a Corbyn aide tells waiting journalists. Not sure if this is about the reshuffle or more of an existential howl.
16:15: I don't have any photos of Charlie Falconer looking sad in my "Politicians Looking Sad" folder (I'm serious, it's a handy tool to have), but I do have this:
16:12: Replacing a justice minister is generally quite difficult as there often aren't enough well-qualified lawyers floating around (unless you're Cameron, who has appointed first a management consultant and then a journalist to the post since sacking Ken Clarke, the only barrister to hold the role under him). But in this case there are plenty of people who are closer to Corbyn who could do the job - Catherine McKinnell, Andy Slaughter but most likely of all Emily Thornberry could do it.
16:10: Steve Hawkes at the Sun is hearing it too:
Hearing Hilary Benn could stay - but Lord Falconer could go - in the beautifully planned and seamlessly executed Reshuffle...
— steve hawkes (@steve_hawkes) January 4, 2016
16:06: NEWS! Thank god. I'm hearing that Lord Falconer, who was Lord Chancellor under Tony Blair, may lose his job as shadow secretary of state for justice.
16:04: An activist laments.
Next time you make me get up at 6am to leaflet, can you make sure we don't then have a reshuffle, you know, so it gets some coverage!?
— Ross Haynes (@RossHaynes92) January 4, 2016
16:00: Laugh? I nearly started.
Corbyn aide emerges to ask journos: what reshuffle?
— Ross Hawkins (@rosschawkins) January 4, 2016
15:55: Expect a lot of fairly naff "Whatever happened to the kinder politics?" pieces after this reshuffle. But in reality it's not unreasonable to move a shadow foreign secretary you don't agree with and reshuffles are always grisly.
15:50: Reasons to hope that Dugher survives in his job: there are no pictures of him in the Getty archive. Whereas I'll be quite disappointed if I don't get a chance to use this picture of Hilary Benn, who has yet to hear what time he is meeting his leader according to LabourList.
15:48: In non-snack news, Emily Thornberry is widely expected to join the Shadow Cabinet today. In her current capacity as a frontbencher, she has written a blog about the universal credit and George Osborne's sudden conversion to it:
It isn’t just the endless delays, computer crashes, “resets” andinter-departmental squabbling that have conspired to bring about the failure of this flagship Tory welfare reform.
15:46: For those of you who have emailed and/or Tweeted about my snack: I had a Twirl. It was good.
15:44: A reprieve for Dugher? A senior Labour source pooh-poohs George's suggestion that he could be for the chop.
15:42: Ahhh, how sweet.
Seb Corbyn emerges to glare at waiting media pack. Like father like son. He's got his dad's side eye.
— Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) January 4, 2016
15:30: Gardiner would be a great promotion by Corbyn - one of the MPs who really gets climate change, and a regular writer for the Staggers. You can read his stuff here.
15:28: Barry Gardiner may have been promoted, says Harry Cole. He could fill Nandy's shoes admirably if she moves to Defence.
Barry Gardiner doesn't deny he's been promoted as he leaves Corbyn office with smile on his face. Chortles.
— Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) January 4, 2016
15:26: Sorry about the radio silence, I had to go get myself a snack because my colleagues left me out of the snack round. I may conduct a revenge reshuffle of my own. Fortunately, not much has happened.
15:16: Labour are learning!
NEW: Labour have now actually placed someone on the stairwell to make sure that no journalists are hanging around outside Corbyn's office.
— Darren McCaffrey (@DMcCaffreySKY) January 4, 2016
Last reshuffle, Darren was able to loiter outside, writing an excellent blog (excellent for readers. For Labour, less so.)
15:14: One Corbyn ally speculated to me that it makes sense to reward Ashworth with a department to shadow, and give his NEC position to a pro-Corbyn MP, perhaps Cat Smith.
15:04: Another thing to keep an eye on is NEC appointments - Corbyn has two, of which one is held by Rebecca Long-Bailey, a Corbynite ally, the other by Jon Ashworth, from the centre of the party. Ashworth has thrown himself into the role of Labour attack dog under Corbyn, and voted with Corbyn on airstrikes. He was also, along with Winterton and Dugher, one of the non-Corbynite MPs who wooed others into serving under Corbyn.
15:02: The biggest loser from today's reshuffle is Sadiq Khan, Labour's mayoral candidate. Labour had their annual fare rises campaign, leafleting train stations with details of eye-watering raises in rail and train fares under the Conservatives - while Khan's campaign has pledged a four-year freeze in Tube fares. There's little chance of that getting noticed now. Here's a photo of Sadiq Khan looking sad.
14:59: Top bantz from the lads at Team Corbyn.
Corbynite humour: Kevin Slocombe eyeing hacks: "It's like a picket line". Seumas Milne: "We do like a picket line!" And reshuffle begins!
— Joe Murphy (@JoeMurphyLondon) January 4, 2016
14:56: "Excuse me guys do you mind not hanging around outside my office door, could you all leave please." was the exact quote according to Sky's Darren McCaffrey. Here's another photo of Jeremy looking disappointed.
14:53: There is a surprising lack of photos of Corbyn looking down his glasses in a headmasterly manner, but here's one which captures the expression I like to imagine he had when chastising journos:
14:50: Not being shooed by Corbyn is Seema Malhotra, who won plaudits in the fight to stop tax credit cuts but is unlikely to be promoted as shadow chief secretary to the Treasury as there is a limited number of possible replacements in that brief.
14:46: "Do you mind not hanging out outside my office door?" Jeremy Corbyn has come out of his office to shoo waiting journalists. (I am wrapped up nice and warm at NS HQ.)
14:42: Last time, Corbyn was heavily criticised for having too many men in top posts - but as I wrote at the time, that was largely due to making space for Andy Burnham and his allies: Benn at Foreign, Dugher at Culture, and Lord Falconer at Justice. I speculated at the time that Benn wouldn't last long:
What was a huge error was to keep Hilary Benn in post at Shadow Foreign. Benn looks uncomfortable already and his media appearances today bore all the hallmarks of a hostage video. It would have been better to appoint Diane Abbott, who has a wealth of media experience and is a devout Corbynite. I wouldn’t be surprised if the longterm consequence of this move is an early resignation from Benn – and a lingering aroma of being “just for the boys” from Labour, which looks worryingly like a golf club at its highest levels. Or, if seeking a moderate, offering it to one of the many centrist women who expressed a willingness to serve but were passed over: Emily Thornberry, and thought to be open-minded on Trident, could have done an excellent job. Instead, as my colleague Helen Lewis reports, she was offered nothing.
14:40: Unlikely to be moved: Heidi Alexander and Lilian Greenwood, who have both impressed at Health and Transport. Alexander also has one of the best Twitter bios in Westminster:
14:37: Corbyn has people who are far better qualified - or, at least, better paid - than me to give him advice but I reckon that he may regret pruning the whips' office. He has very few Corbynite MPs and it seems a waste to put them in what is effectively a backroom role. Campbell and Tami have a gift for organisation - just ask Tony Blair, who Tami helped to oust - which they'll retain even outside the whips' office. Better to have them inside the tent, etc....
14:33: Almost as important as who isn't moving - Rosie Winterton, the respected Chief Whip, is likely to survive. But her deputies Alan Campbell and Mark Tami are likely to be ousted - and the important thing to watch out for is if Winterton retains her responsibility for the boundary review, which many Labour MPs believe will be used as a pretext to remake the PLP in Corbyn's image.
14:25: My colleague George Eaton has the latest gossip: Michael Dugher will be sacked as shadow secretary of state for culture, while Maria Eagle will be moved from shadow defence to shadow culture, avoiding a clash when the issue of Trident renewal comes up. At shadow foreign, Hilary Benn is on course to be moved in favour of Emily Thornberry, who voted against airstrikes and is also anti-Trident. As to the question of who takes defence, however, that's a more difficult matter:
14:22: Jeremy Corbyn is meeting his frontbenchers one-on-one this afternoon to discuss the reshuffle. Some of the meetings will be face-to-face, others over the phone as some members of Parliament are still in their constituencies. Hit "refresh" for the latest.