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Cruddas gets policy brief in shadow cabinet reshuffle
Jon Cruddas has been put in charge of Labour's policy review in a reshuffle of Ed Miliband's shadow cabinet.
Mr Cruddas, MP for Dagenham, succeeds Liam Byrne in the role, although Mr Byrne will retain his role as the party's work and pensions spokesman.
The policy review, begun in 2010, is designed to form the basis of Labour's manifesto at the next general election...
The BBC's Norman Smith said some would see Mr Cruddas' promotion as a "left-ward tilt" as Mr Byrne is regarded as one of the leading Blairites in Labour's top team.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18077008
This may be good news; I certainly much prefer Cruddas to Byrne, or to Andrew Adonis who was apparently also considered for the post. It has certainly been leading to a few screeches from the Right. Kirsty Walker of the Daily Mail wrote an article that began: 'Labour leader Ed Miliband's surprise appointment tonight of radical left-winger Jon Cruddas to head up Labour's policy review will prompt concerns that he is lurching the party to the left.' And Daniel Hannan produced an incoherent rant about it for the Torygraph.
