Only five of Ed Miliband's Shadow Cabinet supported him for the leadership

By Jonathan Isaby

Last night I posted the results of the Shadow Cabinet elections here on ConHome.

Looking a little more closely at the results, it is interesting to note that of the 19 elected members only five backed Ed Miliband in the leadership election:

• Hilary Benn
• John Denham
• Maria Eagle
• Sadiq Khan
• Ann McKechin

And of those five, none were in the top ten in the election.

The lion's share of the new shadow cabinet actually backed their new leader's elder brother, David:

• Douglas Alexander
• Liam Byrne
• Mary Creagh
• Angela Eagle
• Caroline Flint
• Meg Hillier
• Alan Johnson
• Tessa Jowell
• Ivan Lewis
• Jim Murphy

Ed Balls is there, whose only supporters in the new Shadow Cabinet were his wife Yvette Cooper and John Healey, whilst apart from the man himself, no Andy Burnham supporters got elected.

(NB Backers based on the authoritative lists on LabourList)

Of the newcomers to the top table, here are a few factoids that will help illuminate your knowledge of some of them:

Mary Creagh: One of the "top three achievements" listed in the campaign letter for the Shadow Cabinet elections of this former Islington councillor was a campaign to warn people that people could be burned by the hot tap in bathrooms.

Angela Eagle: In 2008 in the House of Commons, the economic Nostradamus Ms Eagle criticised those worrying about the risk of recession by saying: "Fortunately for all of us...that colourful and lurid fiction has no real bearing on the macro-economic reality".

John Healey: As Housing Minister, he faced calls to apologise for saying that repossession "can be the best option" for some families, whilst he also attacked the growth in home ownership. During the Shadow Cabinet elections he wrote that Labour should "strengthen our working links with trade unions".

Meg Hillier: The Ex-GLA member became the Home Office minister responsible for ID cards and infamously went to promote ID cards with a photocall in Liverpool - but left her ID card at home in London, forcing her to pose for the promotional photo without the ID card...

Ann McKechin: Has links to George Galloway, having served as Secretary of the Glasgow Kelvin Constituency Labour Party from 1995-1998 and as their Women's Officer from 2000-2001, when Galloway was the local MP.

The other notable fact about the elections is that whilst eight of the 26 Labour MPs representing Welsh constituencies stood for the Shadow Cabinet, not a single one was elected, meaning that whoever Ed Miliband appoints Shadow Welsh Secretary will not have been elected by their peers.