Birmingham has been left without a seat at the highest levels of politics after city MP Liam Byrne was sacked from his Shadow Cabinet job.

Mr Byrne (Lab Hodge Hill) was demoted from his role as Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary and moved to become a more junior shadow minister responsible for Higher Education.

He insisted he was delighted with his new role in the Department for Business, where he will report to the Shadow Business Secretary, Chuka Umunna.

But there are now no Birmingham MPs in either the Cabinet or Shadow Cabinet.

On the Labour benches, there was a promotion for Wolverhampton MP Emma Reynolds (Lab, Wolverhampton North East).

She moved from Shadow Minister for Europe to Shadow Minister for Housing and will now attend Shadow Cabinet meetings.

Ms Reynolds replaced Birmingham MP Jack Dromey (Lab, Erdington) but Labour leader Ed Miliband was due to reveal on Wednesday whether Mr Dromey would receive a new job.            

Mr Byrne’s new role was previously held by Birmingham MP Shabana Mahmood (Lab, Ladywood) and she was also waiting to learn if she had a new post.

Tories claimed Mr Miliband had sacked or demoted MPs, such as Mr Byrne, who once supported Tony Blair.

But Labour said the party was promoting rising stars like Ms Reynolds, who became an MP in 2010, and putting more women into senior jobs.

The Prime Minister, meanwhile, carried out his own reshuffle of junior ministers and promoted Bromsgrove MP Sajid Javid (Con) from Economic Secretary to the Treasury to Financial Secretary.

Mr Javid will have responsibility for reforming banks and will sometimes represent the UK in meetings of EU finance ministers.