Labour lose Healey and Blackman-Woods from housing

Corbyn has lost his authority within the parliamentary party.

The crisis engulfing Labour’s front bench intensified today with the resignations of John Healey, shadow secretary of state for housing and planning and Roberta Blackman Woods, shadow housing and planning minister.

As of 12:37 there had been 24 Labour resignations today and a total of 19 from the shadow cabinet.

Before the May 2010 general election Healey, MP for Wentworth & Dearne, was minister for housing and planning at the Department for Communities and Local Government – making him the first ever Rotherham MP to sit at the cabinet table.

He became Housing Minister in June 2009, having first joined CLG as local government minister in June 2007. Shortly afterwards he became responsible for coordinating the Government's contribution to the recovery from that summer's floods.

Blackman-Woods has been MP for the City of Durham for over 10 years, having first been elected in 2005.

Since 2011 she had been part of the shadow ministerial communities and local government team and was shadow housing and planning minister under the newly formed shadow housing team within DCLG.

Blackman-Woods said Mr Corbyn was "a decent and honest man" but she "no longer" had confidence in him as leader – criticising his input in the EU referendum campaign.

Replacements for Healey and Blackman-Woods have yet to be announced.

Meanwhile Labour deputy leader Tom Watson has told Corbyn that he has lost his authority within the parliamentary party and that if there was a leadership election then members would be voting with that knowledge.