Shadow Cabinet (UK)

The Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet (usually known simply as the Shadow Cabinet) is, in British parliamentary practice, senior members of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition who scrutinise their corresponding Government ministers, develop alternative policies, and hold the Government to account for its actions and responses. Since May 2010, the Labour Party has been Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition, and its leadership therefore forms the current Shadow Cabinet.

Not all Opposition frontbenchers are members of the Shadow Cabinet, which is composed of the most senior Opposition Members (usually around twenty).

The Leader of the Opposition, the Opposition Chief Whip and Opposition Deputy Chief Whip are the only Members of the Official Opposition to draw remuneration for their Opposition roles in addition to their salaries as Members of Parliament. The Leader of the Opposition and the Opposition Chief Whip in the House of Lords also receive a salary.

A Shadow Cabinet was announced by the Leader of the Opposition, Jeremy Corbyn, following a small reshuffle in January 2016. Following the 2016 referendum in which Britain voted to leave the European Union, a large number of Shadow Cabinet ministers resigned. In the early hours of Sunday 26 June, Corbyn sacked Hilary Benn (the shadow foreign secretary) for apparently leading a coup against him. This was quickly followed by a string of Labour MPs resigning their Shadow Cabinet positions. By mid-afternoon on 27 June 2016, 23 of the Labour Party's 31 Shadow Cabinet members had resigned, as did seven parliamentary private secretaries. Corbyn soon filled some of the vacancies and endeavoured to fill the others.

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