Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper join Hackney South and Shoreditch MP in Shadow Cabinet but Diane Abbot snubbed again.

HACKNEY had winners and a loser in the race for the shadow cabinet.

Meg Hillier, MP for Hackney South and Shoreditch, was picked by her fellow MPs to take a place on the opposition front bench alongside new leader Ed Miliband.

Diane Abbott, MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, followed up being rejected as leader by being snubbed for a place in the Shadow Cabinet by her own party despite having one of the highest profiles of any politician.

Yvette Cooper and Ed Balls, who live in Stoke Newington and have Ms Abbott as their local MP, also made the top 19.

The successful trio are due to find out tonight what position they will hold in opposition while Ms Abbott has pledged to be a strong voice on the backbenches.

Ms Abbott said: “I am disappointed to not be part of Labour’s new Shadow Cabinet but I wish my peers that have been picked, all the very best.

“I will happily work alongside our new leader to help him to carry out the vision of our party’s future, and will continue to be a strong voice within the party and in opposition.

“I will do all I can to help oppose the Coalition’s cuts which I believe fulfil a Tory agenda of scaling back the welfare state, rather than the needs of our society.

“These Lib Con cuts have been proven to hit our poorest and most vulnerable hardest, and I will not sit idly by and see the Tories damage the progress Labour made over the last 13 years.”