Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn plans 'shocking' new shadow cabinet amid high-profile resignations

Jeremy Corbyn is expected to unveil the members of his new shadow cabinet after the left-winger secured a clear victory in Labour's leadership election. The 66-year-old has not announced his top team yet, but Unite chief Len McCluskey claimed people will be "shocked" by the line-up.

The general secretary also insisted that the shadow cabinet would be the "best we have seen", when he appeared on the BBC Radio 5 Live Pienaar's Politics show on 13 September. The announcement will come after a number of high-profile resignations from Labour's frontbench.

Chris Leslie, Tristram Hunt and Emma Reynolds are just some of the high-profile politicians who have stood down in the wake of Corbyn's election, which saw the left-winger win almost 60% of the vote. His former leadership rivals Liz Kendall and Yvette Cooper have also stood down from their roles. Chuku Umunna is refusing to quit but waiting to hear from the new Labour leader. "As far as we are concerned he is in the shadow cabinet until he is sacked," a source close to Umunna told MailOnline.

But Jamie Reed, the former shadow health minister, drummed up most controversy when he quit Labour's shadow government just seconds after Corbyn took the top Labour job. The Copeland MP also shared his letter of resignation with thousands of his followers on social media site Twitter.

"I entered politics to transform the constituency in which I was born – the most remotely accessible English constituency from Westminster," he wrote. "Over 10 years I have managed to secure funding for new hospitals and schools and to establish new nuclear policy, the implementation of which I am immensely proud and which will enable my community to become one of the fastest growing economies anywhere in the United Kingdom.

"This will help to rebalance the national economy, enable us to better secure our energy supplies, help us to achieve our international climate change objects and reduce nuclear proliferation."

Reed added: "This is entirely within the national interest and it is to this agenda and the people whom I am privileged to represent in Parliament, to which I will continue to devote myself. Your opposition to this, as with David Cameron when he became leader of the Opposition, is poorly informed and fundamentally wrong."

The ins and outs

Former Labour leader Ed Miliband, who remained silent on the issue of his successor during the election campaign, has also revealed that he would not accept a position in Corbyn's shadow cabinet. But Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary and ex-leadership rival, could join the left-wingers team after the Leigh MP said he would work under Corbyn. However, Burnham has also previously promised he would not take a job in Labour's frontbench unless Corbyn dropped his opposition to Britain's nuclear weapons and if the new leader proposed leaving Nato.

Tom Watson, the new deputy leader, is already part of Corbyn's team thanks to his election as deputy leader and close left-winger ally John McDonnell is tipped for a top job. Crucially, the new leader has been able to keep Rosie Winterton as Labour's chief whip in the House of Commons, who also served under Miliband.