Yvette Cooper was frontrunner to become Ed Miliband's shadow chancellor after she came top in last night's shadow cabinet poll, winning 232 votes, 40 more than her nearest rival, John Healey. Eight of Ed Miliband's 19-strong shadow cabinet, elected by a secret ballot of Labour MPs, are women in part reflecting the requirement to vote for six women.
In total there are eight new shadow cabinet members, including some less well known women such as Mary Creagh – who has never held a ministerial post – Ann McKechin and Meg Hillier. Miliband will hand out his top portfolios tomorrow. Ten of the 19 shadow cabinet members backed David Miliband, but the political balance is clear. The ballot is held in secret. Labour MPs are required to vote for six women and six men.
Surprisingly, Peter Hain, the experienced Welsh secretary and one of Ed Miliband's earliest and closest supporters did not make the first 19, missing out by three votes, polling 97 – three short of Liam Byrne, the lowest placed elected member and two less than Emily Thornberry, the Labour MP for Islington South.
Hain may have been a victim of the large number of Welsh MPs among the total of 49 candidates. However, he may have been handed a lifeline because no MP from Labour's Welsh heartland managed to secure a place in the top team. Miliband will need to fill the post of shadow Welsh secretary, and has the power to co-opt someone from outside the shadow cabinet if he wants.
Balls came third with 179 votes, and Ed Miliband will now have a difficult decision whether to use his economic expertise in the shadow chancellorship, even though Balls believes the deficit should not be cut as fast as the previous Labour government proposed. The Conservatives plan to smear him as a deficit denier. Some fear Balls's strong views would put Labour outside the mainstream, but he is widely recognised as the most capable economist in the Labour ranks and was praised for the tone of his leadership campaign and his skills in tackling the Tories.
Cooper refused to stand for the leadership because of her young family. The shadow chancellorship will hardly be any less demanding. Healey, a former TUC official and often on the verge of a cabinet appointment, could have an outside chance for chancellor if Miliband declines to choose between Balls and his wife. It is more likely he will take over work and pensions.
Andy Burnham, another leadership candidate, received 165 votes, coming fourth. Ed Miliband will be pleased that three of the shadow cabinet figures who backed him for the leadership, John Denham, the shadow communities secretary, Hilary Benn, the shadow environment food and rural affairs secretary and Sadiq Khan, the shadow transport secretary were all elected.
Labour's new leader will also be relieved that two leading figures co-ordinating the David Miliband campaign were elected – Jim Murphy and Douglas Alexander. They both secured 160 votes and came well inside the top ten. Liam Byrne, the former treasury chief secretary, scraped through by one vote, even though he had been widely tipped to lose his seat for having written a letter to his successor joking there was no money left. He is still only 40. With a management consultancy background he would be well placed to shadow Vince Cable in the business department.
Diane Abbott, leftwing leadership candidate, failed to be elected, but five women have been propelled forwards – Mary Creagh, Ann McKechin, Angela Eagle, her twin sister Maria and Meg Hiller, previously a junior minister in the Home Office responsible for piloting the identity cards bill through parliament.
Angela Eagle, who was sacked by Tony Blair, will be delighted by her strong showing of 165 votes. Maria Eagle said: "I think the fact that eight women have been elected shows that the parliamentary Labour party want a balance in terms of gender. They've noticed that the government is gender-blind, it's hitting women very hard."
Tessa Jowell, one of the great survivors of the Blair regime, won 152 votes and Caroline Flint, the former Europe minister who quit the Brown government claiming women had been sidelined, returns to the top of Labour politics.
