A CUMBRIA MP has resigned from the shadow cabinet moments after Jeremy Corbyn was announced as Labour leader.

Jamie Reed, MP for Copeland, posted his resignation letter on Twitter minutes after the result of the Labour leadership contest was announced on today (Saturday).

First elected in 2005 the MP had been a shadow health minister under Andy Burnham.

Mr Reed hit out at Mr Corbyn, branding his stance on the nuclear industry as 'poorly informed and fundamentally wrong', adding it was 'time to turn the despair of defeat into the determination to win'.

But the MP pledged he will continue to fight for his constituency which covers Keswick, Wasdale Valley, Millom and Whitehaven.

In his letter dated September 12 he said: "Dear Jeremy, congratulations on being elected the leader of the Labour Party.

"This letter constitutes my resignation from the position of shadow health minister. It has been an enormous privilege to serve on the party frontbench for the last five years, in particular in working to improve the NHS and to protect it from ruinous Conservative policy.

"Like everything else Labour stands for, this effort becomes much more difficult to achieve the longer we remain in opposition.

"No amount of well-meaning protest will protect the NHS, drive up standards, recruit more medical professionals or improve the accessibility of world-class health care to the British people.

"Only an elected Labour government will do this."

MORE TOP STORIES: He added: "I will not let anything or anyone from any party stand in the way of the ambitions of my community."

He said the party owes more to Methodism than Marxism and described the party as 'a force for good in our troubled world'.

He added: "I look forward to working with those thousands of people who have joined our party in recent months so that I can help to turn the desperation of defeat into the determination to win again."