1996 Labour Party Shadow Cabinet election

Elections to the Labour Party's Shadow Cabinet took place in July 1996. Under the rules then in effect, the Commons members of the Parliamentary Labour Party elected 19 members of the Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet, who were then assigned portfolios by the leader. The Labour peers elected the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords. In addition, the Leader of the Labour Party and Deputy Leader (Tony Blair and John Prescott, respectively) were members by virtue of those offices. The 19 elected members of the Shadow Cabinet were the ones with the largest number of votes. MPs were required to vote for at least four women, but women were not necessarily guaranteed places in the Shadow Cabinet.

Colour key	Retained in the Shadow Cabinet
	Joined the Shadow Cabinet
	Voted out of the Shadow Cabinet

Rank	Candidate	Constituency	Votes
1	Margaret Beckett	Derby South	251
2	Ann Taylor	Dewsbury	250
3	Clare Short	Birmingham Ladywood	218
4	Gavin Strang	Edinburgh East	217
5	Robin Cook	Livingston	215
6	Donald Dewar	Glasgow Garscadden	212
7	Frank Dobson	Holborn and St Pancras	211
8	Mo Mowlam	Redcar	206
9†	David Clark	South Shields	205
9†	Michael Meacher	Oldham West	205
11	Ron Davies	Caerphilly	201
12	Jack Cunningham	Copeland	190
13	Jack Straw	Blackburn	189
14†	Gordon Brown	Dunfermline East	188
14†	Chris Smith	Islington South and Finsbury	148
16	George Robertson	Hamilton	182
17†	David Blunkett	Sheffield Brightside	175
17†	Tom Clarke	Monklands West	175
19	Harriet Harman	Peckham	149
20	Ann Clwyd	Cynon Valley	94
21†	Lynne Jones	Birmingham Selly Oak	66
21†	Chris Mullin	Sunderland South	66
23	Paul Flynn	Newport West	61
24	Tony Banks	Newham North West	47
25	Dennis Canavan	Falkirk West	42
26	Jeremy Corbyn	Islington North	37

† Multiple candidates tied for position.

References

"Shadow Cabinet Elections in the 1992 Parliament". Archived from the original on 14 July 2010. Retrieved 24 May 2010.

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Leaders	Hardie Henderson Barnes MacDonald Henderson Adamson Clynes MacDonald Henderson Lansbury Attlee Morrison^ Gaitskell Brown^ Wilson Callaghan Foot Kinnock Smith Beckett^ Blair Brown Harman^ Miliband Harman^ Corbyn Starmer
Deputy Leaders	Clynes Graham Attlee Greenwood Morrison Griffiths Bevan Brown Jenkins Short Foot Healey Hattersley Beckett Prescott Harman Watson Rayner
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Leaders in the Lords	Haldane Cripps Ponsonby Snell Addison Jowitt Alexander Pakenham Shackleton Shepherd Peart Hughes Richard Jay Williams Amos Ashton Royall Smith of Basildon
Scottish Labour Leaders	Dewar McLeish Jamieson^ McConnell Jamieson^ Alexander Jamieson^ Gray Lamont Sarwar^ Murphy Gray^ Dugdale Rowley^ Baillie^ Leonard Sarwar
PLP Chairs	Hardie Henderson Barnes MacDonald Henderson Hodge* Wardle* Adamson Clynes MacDonald Henderson Lansbury Attlee Lees-Smith* Pethick-Lawrence* Greenwood* Gaitskell Wilson Houghton Mikardo Hughes Willey Dormand Orme Hoyle Soley Corston Clwyd Lloyd Watts Cryer
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Leadership elections	1922 Ramsay MacDonald 1931 Arthur Henderson 1932 George Lansbury 1935 Clement Attlee 1955 Hugh Gaitskell 1960 1961 1963 Harold Wilson 1976 James Callaghan 1980 Michael Foot 1983 Neil Kinnock 1988 1992 John Smith 1994 Tony Blair 2007 Gordon Brown 2010 Ed Miliband 2015 Jeremy Corbyn 2016 2020 Keir Starmer
Deputy Leadership elections	1952 Herbert Morrison 1953 1956 Jim Griffiths 1959 Aneurin Bevan 1960 George Brown 1961 1962 1970 Roy Jenkins 1971 1972 Edward Short 1976 Michael Foot 1980 Denis Healey 1981 1983 Roy Hattersley 1988 1992 Margaret Beckett 1994 John Prescott 2007 Harriet Harman 2015 Tom Watson 2020 Angela Rayner
Shadow Cabinet elections and reshuffles	Sep 1931 (Henderson) Nov 1931 1932 (Lansbury) 1933 1934 1935 (Attlee) 1936 1937 1938 1939 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 (Gaitskell) 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 (Wilson) 1970 1971 1972 1973 1979 (Callaghan) 1980 (Foot) 1981 1982 1983 (Kinnock) 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 (Smith) 1993 1994 (Blair) 1995 1996 2010 (Miliband) June 2016 (Corbyn) May 2021 (Starmer) November 2021 2023

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