1991 Labour Party (UK) Shadow Cabinet election 1991 Labour Party (UK) Shadow Cabinet election Elections to the Labour Party's Shadow Cabinet took place on 23 October 1991. Under the rules then in effect, the Commons members of the Parliamentary Labour Party elected 18 members of the Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet, who were then assigned portfolios by the leader. The Commons members of the PLP separately elected the Chief Whip, and the Labour peers elected the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords. In addition, the Leader of the Labour Party and Deputy Leader (Neil Kinnock and Roy Hattersley, respectively) were members by virtue of those
History of the Labour Party (UK) as Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party (in effect, the Leader), although only by one vote over David Shackleton after several ballots. In the party's early years the Independent Labour Party (ILP) provided much of its activist base as the party did not have individual membership until 1918 but operated as a conglomerate of affiliated bodies. The Fabian Society provided much of the intellectual stimulus for the party. One of the first acts of the new Liberal Government was to reverse the Taff Vale judgement, while Labour parliamentarians encouraged and supported progressive measures such as the Workmen's Compensation Act 1906,