Diane Abbott sacked as Miliband forges loyal frontbench team

Diane Abbott’s exit from the Labour frontbench has come later than the former Shadow Public Health Minister imagined. She had planned to resign over the Syria vote, only to find, rather to her dismay, that her party leadership had taken the position she supported in the end. Behind the scenes, the briefing is that she wasn’t sufficiently loyal: she has always been in her own party rather than pulling for the team. LabourList has a fantastic quote from a party source about Abbott ‘pissing all over the tents’, rather than ‘pissing out of the tent’ as had been hoped. She did get rather cross about Syria, but she also publicly objected to any toughening of the party’s stance on immigration, and became Michael Gove’s favourite Labour MP when she supported his drive for higher standards in schools.