1987 Labour Party Shadow Cabinet election

The annual election to the Labour Party's Shadow Cabinet (more formally, its "Parliamentary Committee") was conducted in 1987.^[1] In addition to the 16 members elected, the Leader (Neil Kinnock), Deputy Leader (Roy Hattersley), Labour Chief Whip (Derek Foster), Labour Leader in the House of Lords (Cledwyn Hughes), and Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party (Stan Orme) were automatically members.

Following the 1987 general election, there were significant changes to the cabinet. Barry Jones, Peter Shore, Peter Archer and Giles Radice lost their seats, and other familiar faces such as Denis Healey did not stand. Michael Meacher, Robert Hughes, Robin Cook, Frank Dobson, Gordon Brown, Jo Richardson and Jack Straw gained seats.

Rank	Prior rank	Candidate	Constituency	Votes
1	15	Bryan Gould	Dagenham	163
2	12=	John Prescott	Kingston upon Hull East	130
3	16	Michael Meacher	Oldham West	127
4	1	Gerald Kaufman	Manchester Gorton	115
5	2	John Smith	Monklands East	113
6	3	Denzil Davies	Llanelli	111
7	17=	Robert Hughes	Aberdeen North	106
8	17=	Robin Cook	Livingston	95
9	14	Donald Dewar	Glasgow Garscadden	93
10		Frank Dobson	Holborn and St Pancras	91
11=		Gordon Brown	Dunfermline East	88
11=	9	Jack Cunningham	Copeland	88
11=		Jo Richardson	Barking	88
14	12=	David Clark	South Shields	87
15		Jack Straw	Blackburn	86
16	6	Barry Jones	Alyn and Deeside	78
17		Tony Blair	Sedgefield	71
18		Tony Benn	Chesterfield	69

Footnotes

Notes

References

^ The Times Guide to the House of Commons, June 1987, p.21

Labour Party

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Leadership

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
General Secretaries	MacDonald Henderson Middleton Phillips Williams Barker^ Nicholas Hayward Mortimer Whitty Sawyer McDonagh Triesman Carter Watt Collins McNicol Formby Evans
Treasurers	Henderson MacDonald Henderson Lathan Greenwood Gaitskell Bevan Nicholas Davies Callaghan Atkinson Varley Booth McCluskie Burlison Prosser Elsby Dromey Holland
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
EPLP Leaders	Stewart Prescott Castle Lomas Martin Seal Ford Green David Donnelly Murphy Titley Willmott Corbett
* = wartime, in opposition ^ Interim/Acting

Internal elections and selections

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

Party structure

Constitution	Clause IV
Executive	National Executive Committee General Secretary Treasurer
Parliamentary	Parliamentary Labour Party Chief Whip of the Labour Party
Conference	Labour Party Conference
Subnational	Scottish Labour Welsh Labour Labour Party in Northern Ireland
Directly elected city mayoral authorities	London Labour
CLPs	Constituency Labour Party Labour International
Miscellaneous	National Policy Forum Affiliated trade unions Trade Union and Labour Party Liaison Organisation Labour Co-operative Co-operative Party Labour – Federation of Labour Groups

Associated organisations

List	Organisations associated with the Labour Party
Sectional groups	Young Labour Labour International LGBT+ Labour Labour Campaign for Trans Rights Labour Students BAME Labour Disability Labour
Factional groups	Blue Labour Campaign for Labour Party Democracy Christians on the Left Compass Fabian Society Young Fabians Future Britain Centre-Left Grassroots Alliance Jewish Labour Movement Labour Campaign for Electoral Reform Labour CND Labour Friends of Israel Labour Friends of Palestine & the Middle East Labour Party Irish Society Labour Representation Committee (2004) Momentum Open Labour National Union of Labour and Socialist Clubs Progress Revolutionary Communist Party Formerly Socialist Appeal Socialist Health Association Socialist Educational Association Socialist Environment and Resources Association Socialist Campaign Group Socialist Youth Network Socialist societies
Media publications	LabourList Tribune

Party alliances

Current	Party of European Socialists Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats Progressive Alliance Socialist International

v t e Neil Kinnock
Political career	Leader of the Labour Party (1983–1992) Shadow Cabinet Member of Parliament for Bedwellty (1970–1983) Member of Parliament for Islwyn (1983–1995)
Shadow Cabinet elections	1980 1981 1982
Party elections	1983 1988
General elections	1987 1992
Family	Glenys Kinnock (wife) Stephen Kinnock (son) Helle Thorning-Schmidt (daughter-in-law)
Related topics	Sheffield Rally War of Jennifer's Ear

v t e John Smith
Politics	Labour Party North Lanarkshire Monklands East Shadow Cabinet of John Smith One more heave
Shadow Cabinet elections	1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991
Party elections	1992
Family	Elizabeth Smith Sarah Smith
Related topics	John Smith House Prawn Cocktail Offensive

v t e Tony Blair
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1997–2007) Leader of the Labour Party (1994–2007) MP for Sedgefield (1983–2007)
Politics	Premiership Blair ministry First, 1997–2001 Second, 2001–2005 Third, 2005–2007 Blair–Brown deal Electoral history Shadow Cabinet of Tony Blair 1999 British cabinet reshuffle Bush–Blair 2003 Iraq memo 2006 cabinet reshuffle
Ideology	Blairism New Labour Third Way
General elections	1997 2001 2005
Party election	1994
Shadow Cabinet elections	1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993
Post-premiership	Tony Blair Institute for Global Change Quartet on the Middle East Africa Progress Panel Tony Blair Faith Foundation Commission for Africa
Books	A Journey
Cultural depictions	If... (1981– comic) Spitting Image (1984–1996 TV series) Independence Day UK (1996 film) St Albion Parish News (1997–2007) "Tony Blair" (1999 song) The Big Impression (2000–2004 TV series) 2DTV (2001–2004 TV series) Alan Clark Diaries: Volume 3: The Last Diaries 1993–1999 (2002) "Shoot the Dog" (2002 song) Jeffrey Archer: The Truth (2002) Number Ten (2002 novel) The Deal (2003 film) The Simpsons, "The Regina Monologues" (2003) Photo Op (2003 photomontage) Churchill: The Hollywood Years (2004 film) The Government Inspector (2005 film) The Queen (2006 film) The Blair Years (2007) The Trial of Tony Blair (2007) TONY! The Blair Musical (2007) The Ghost (2007 novel) Red Nose Day 2007 (2007 TV) Headcases (2008 TV series) W. (2008 film) The Ghost Writer (2010 film) The Special Relationship (2010 film) The Hunt for Tony Blair (2011) The Audience (2013 play) The Killing$ of Tony Blair (2016) The Journey (2016 film)
Related topics	Ugly Rumours Respect agenda Blatcherism Cool Britannia Blair Babes Tony's Cronies Iraq Inquiry People's princess Hand of history Tonibler
Family	Cherie Blair (wife) Euan Blair (son) Leo Blair (father) William Blair (brother)
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