Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman has advised caution amongst his fellow MPs following Jeremy Corbyn’s landslide victory in the Labour Party leader election contest.

The 66-year-old who began the campaign as a rank outsider crushed his front bench opponents, Liz Kendall, Andy Burnham and Yvette Cooper.

Mr Sheerman, who has been an MP since 1979, and whose first choice for the leadership was Liz Kendall, said: “I think it’s been a shock to most of us that Jeremy has come from nowhere to win it on the first ballot.

“Much of has support has come from a large influx of people who joined recently on the £3 membership deal. The question now is how do you go forward?

“There’s going to be some horse-trading, let’s see how we go. He has won handsomely and now is not the time for people to start flouncing around. Everyone has to make compromises.”

But already the resignations have come thick and fast.

Jeremy Corbyn is announced as the new leader of the Labour Party on September 12, 2015. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
Jeremy Corbyn is announced as the new leader of the Labour Party on September 12, 2015. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Shadow health minister Jamie Reed, an outspoken critic of Mr Corbyn, announced his resignation from the Labour front bench within seconds of his victory while Shadow work and pensions spokesman Rachel Reeves was quick to follow.

Shadow education spokesman Tristram Hunt has said he will not serve in a Corbyn shadow cabinet and Yvette Cooper said she will return to the back benches. Chris Leslie, the shadow chancellor, made the same decision too.

Asked how Mr Corbyn’s famed disdain for messy compromises and preference for resolute principles would square with the inevitable compromises all democratic leaders have to make, Mr Sheerman said: “That is going to be one of the very interesting things that we will see how it develops.

“There was a real mood of anti-politics at the last General Election and I do think people are tired of conventional politics especially.

“I think Jeremy’s attraction to many members was that he was not out of central casting and one of the ‘men in suits’.”

Yorkshire First, a new party founded by former Holmfirth businessman Richard Carter, believes the county may have an ally in Mr Corbyn.

Richard Carter

Mr Carter, the party’s leader, said Mr Corbyn’s document Northern Future saw the need for power to be devolved and added: “We would like his support in our campaign for a first class, democratic, devolution settlement for Yorkshire, a settlement based on the needs and aspirations of all our communities.”