Solicitor Richard Burgon MP, formerly with trade union firm Thompsons, has been appointed shadow lord chancellor as the turmoil in the Labour party claimed another frontbench spokesman. 

Burgon (pictured), elected to parliament only in 2015, replaces Lord Falconer who resigned on Sunday.

Burgon is a staunch supporter of Corbyn, posting a message online yesterday accusing ‘some coup-backing Labour MPs fundamentally opposed to Jeremy Corbyn and his ideas’ of trying to ‘drive party members to resign in disgust at their behaviour’.

The MP for Leeds East is 35 and formerly worked for trade union firm Thompsons Solicitors. He was admitted in 2006.

Meanwhile Hammersmith MP Andy Slaughter, who served as shadow justice minister for almost six years, left his post overnight. The BBC reported he had turned down a more senior role in the shadow cabinet and the news was confirmed by the MP this morning.

He said: 'I realise this will come as bad news to your given the other resignations yesterday and today from your front bench. The decision is my own, but taken after consultation with the officers of my local party and other members and councillors in Hammersmith. Their view, by a clear majority, is that I should take this course.'

He added: 'Following the utter disaster of the leave vote last week I think we have entered a new phase of politics in which, both in the likely autumn election and the negotiations on Brexit that will follow, we need as a party to be 100% match fit.

'I don't think you are the best person to maximise our support in the country or combat the very right-wing forces that have taken over the Tory party.'

Slaughter has been a prominent critic of the government’s justice policies and led the opposition to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act, which restricted legal aid for many civil cases. The former personal injury barrister had been regarded as one of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s biggest supporters.