COPELAND MP Jamie Reed has resigned as Shadow Health Minister, within minutes of Jeremy Corbyn being announced as the new Labour Party leader. 

His letter of resignation was posted on Twitter while Mr Corbyn was still delivering his victory speech.

Mr Reed, who was present at the special Labour conference for the leadership and deputy leadership election results, congratulated Mr Corbyn on his election but went on: "This letter constitutes my resignation from the position of Shadow Health Minister."

The MP particularly raised Mr Corbyn's opposition to nuclear power as an issue, call it "poorly informed and fundamentally wrong. To be clear, I will not let anything or anyone from any party stand in the way of the ambitions of my community."

Mr Reed's letter reads: "It has been an enormous privilege to serve on the party frontbench for the last five years, in particular in working to improve the NHS and to protect it from ruinous Conservative policy. 

"Like everything else Labour stands for, this effort becomes much more difficult to achieve the longer we remain in Opposition. No amount of well meaning protest will protect the NHS, drive up standards, recruit more medical professionals or improve the accessibility of world-class health care to the British people. 

"Only an elected Labour government will do this. At our best, our party has changed not only this country but also the world, for the better. 

"The creation of the NHS and the welfare state, the realisation of independence for India, the devolution of power to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the introduction of the national minimum wage: the list is endless. 

"I’m incredibly proud of the fact that between 1997 and 2010 the Labour Government was the most redistributive Government in British history, but the truth is that we have only ever been able to secure these achievements when we have secured the trust of the British people. 

"I entered politics to transform the constituency in which I was born – the most remotely accessible English constituency from Westminster. 

"Over ten years I have managed to secure funding for new hospitals and schools and to establish new nuclear policy, the implementation of which I am immensely proud and which will enable my community to become one of the fastest growing economies anywhere in the United Kingdom. 

"This will help to rebalance the national economy, enable us to better secure our energy supplies, help us to achieve our international climate change objectives and reduce nuclear proliferation. 

"This is entirely within the national interest and it is to this agenda and the people whom I am privileged to represent in Parliament, to which I will continue to devote myself. 

"Your opposition to this, as with David Cameron when he became Leader of the Opposition, is poorly informed and fundamentally wrong. To be clear, I will not let anything or anyone from any party stand in the way of the ambitions of my community. 

"Morgan Phillips was right, our party owes far more to Methodism than Marxism – and it always will. In synchronicity with the British people, the Labour Party is a force for good in our troubled world. 

"On leaving the frontbench I will work harder than ever to restore this relationship so that our party can serve those millions of Britons who require a government that will help them to become empowered to improve their lives, achieve their ambitions and protect their communities. 

"In doing so, I look forward to working with those thousands of people who have joined our party in recent months so that I can help to turn the desperation of defeat into the determination to win again. 

"Yours sincerely, Jamie Reed."

  • Mr Reed has been Labour MP for Copeland since Jack Cunningham retired in 2005.
  • He first became a shadow health minister in 2011, at the same time as Andy Burnham became shadow health secretary. Before that he had been a shadow environment minister.
  • Mr Corbyn won 59.5 per cent of the vote to be new leader. Mr Burnham came second on 19 per cent; Yvette Cooper third on 17 per cent; and Liz Kendall fourth on 4.5 per cent.
  • Mr Reed and the Copeland Constituency Labour Party had supported Mr Burnham in the elections.