Who speaks for the South?
John Denham’s departure from the shadow cabinet, whilst heavily trailed overnight, is nonetheless a surprise and disappointment. A surprise, because no one was predicting his departure in the usual pre–reshuffle speculation; a disappointment, because following completion of the leader’s reshuffle, there isn’t a single elected member of the shadow cabinet who represents a seat in the south of England. Given that this was the first reshuffle in which Ed Miliband had a free hand to choose his own team, the leader cannot blame it on the hand he was dealt.

Of course, with only ten MPs to choose from, including some who aren’t ready for promotion to the shadow cabinet, and others whose frontbench days are behind them, even with a free hand to choose his team, there wasn’t really a lot of choice available to Ed.

There is though, one MP from the south who remains shadow cabinet calibre, and could artuclate southern concerns and priorities: Ben Bradshaw.

Now, having talked in his inaugural leader’s speech about Labour’s “new generation” it is perhaps understandable that Ed wanted the reshuffle story to be about the coming of age of the extremely talented 2010 intake, and not so-called retreads from the last Government. However, as we have argued before, Labour’s path back to Government must pass through the south. And despite some promising results in parts of the south in last year’s council elections, we aren’t doing as well as we should in those places in the south where we need to be competitive again.

Winning once more in the south means listening to southern voters – something our elected politicians, like Ben and John, do on a weekly basis. With three southern regions unrepresented in the shadow cabinet it will be even more essential for its members to ensure that they make the time to visit places like Weymouth, Gloucester, Chatham, Swindon and Lowestoft, and that when they are there, they talk to voters, not just party members.