As The New Labour Leader Forms His Shadow Cabinet, Here Is Paul Waugh's New Update Titled - CORBYNOMICS LESSEN?

* Paul Waugh

by Paul Waugh | Politics

As John Healey’s blog for HuffPost yesterday underlined, policy is not set by the leader but by the PLP and party conference. That’s precisely why he and others are relaxed about the new ‘debates’ going on over policy: because they have the safeguard that Corbyn has lots of hurdles to cross before changing anything.

But the appointment of John McDonnell continues to rankle with even Corbyn sympathisers. The Times points out Len McCluskey lobbied for a woman to the get the job. Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, said that Mr Corbyn would have to “grow into the job”. Sir Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB union, said that Mr Corbyn’s “real tests” would come at local elections, and votes in Scotland and Wales, next year.

As for the deficit, McDonnell has hit back in the Guardian at those who suggest he’s not in favour of ‘living within our means’. The only problem is just what his timetable is for that. As I reported last night, Alison McGovern had a fascinating conversation with Corbyn when offered the Shadow Chief Sec job: and the leader didn’t appear to like her condition that the books had to be balanced ‘over the economic cycle’.

As for the row over women in high places, this too still worries many. Jess Philips last night won applause at the PLP as she said “I’ve never felt more alienated by this party than when I saw there were no women on stage on Saturday. And Seema Malhotra told Radio 4 last night: “People did miss the presence of women at the leadership conference on Saturday, there was no woman that came onto the stage at all.”

The Telegraph has got hold of Corbyn’s ex wife Jane Chapman. She explains: “Jeremy is a feminist, it's just that the big divide is anti-austerity or not and McDonnell is clearly on Jeremy's side with that. It's a question of his tactical priorities, I think.” But she added: "It's not as if most women have to prove their capabilities, it's just that they are somehow not recognised in the same way.”

Melanie Onn, the Great Grimsby MP, added: "Relegating the women to the nursing and teaching jobs is a bit disappointing. His line up does present that he has a woman problem.

No wonder Simon Fletcher is said to have said on Sunday night the leadership was on “taking a fair amount of sh*t out there [on social media] about women”.

Meanwhile there’s the wider economic debate. In the Times, George Osborne writes: “Far from celebrating this turmoil, for me, as chancellor, this means going back to first principles, and winning again the arguments made by both Conservative and previous Labour governments alike.”

Labour will at least unite in opposing tax credits cuts today. On the Today prog, the IFS’s Paul Johnson said that the national living wage would go ‘nowhere near’ making up for the cuts to tax credits. The IFS, like the Resolution Foundation before them, have concluded only 13% of the in-work credit losses for poor families would be compensated by the NLW.

* Paul Waugh is the Executive Editor, Politics, HuffPost UK.