THE region lost its voice at the top of the Labour Party last night when all four North-East candidates for Ed Miliband’s Shadow Cabinet lost out in a dramatic election.

Kevan Jones (Durham North), Helen Goodman (Bishop Auckland), Iain Wright (Hartlepool) and Roberta Blackman-Woods (Durham City) all failed to land one of 19 places.

The new Labour leader will allocate the portfolios today, with all eyes on the Shadow Chancellor’s post – thought to be a straight husband-andwife tussle between Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper.

Meanwhile, the North-East will be coming to terms with its slide in influence within the Labour Party when compared to the heady days of Tony Blair’s leadership.

In autumn 1999, six MPs from the region sat in the Cabinet.

The Prime Minister was joined by Alan Milburn (Darlington), Mo Mowlem (Redcar), Peter Mandelson (Hartlepool), Stephen Byers (North Tyneside) and Nick Brown (Newcastle East).

But Mr Brown was forced out of the chief whip’s post last week and David Miliband (South Shields) chose to step down from the Shadow Cabinet after losing the leadership election to his brother.

Mr Balls has made no secret of his desire to fill the Shadow Chancellor’s post, but has set out a slower deficit-cutting plan than his leader – who may also believe Mr Balls is tarnished by being Gordon Brown’s key ally.

It was reported yesterday that Ms Cooper was reluctant to snatch the prize from her husband's grasp, but her big victory will have strengthened her hand greatly.

Whoever gets the nod today will have less than two weeks to put together an economic policy before the crunch spending review is outlined on October 20 – paving the way for an unprecedented £83bn of cuts.

Other senior figures returned included former cabinet ministers Alan Johnson, Andy Burnham and Jim Murphy, along with Mr Miliband’s leadership campaign manager Sadiq Khan.

But there were also surprise losers, in particular ex-Welsh secretary Peter Hain – who lost by three votes – former Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw and ex-Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward.

Labour only elects its top team when in opposition. Yesterday, former foreign secretary Jack Straw described the system as “barking mad”.