Ed Miliband has appointed former minister Pat McFadden as shadow Europe minister in a move to sharpen up Labour’s message on the EU.
Mr McFadden was employment minister and business minister under Gordon Brown, but has been on the backbenches for the past four years.
He will be taking over from Gareth Thomas and said he is delighted to be joining the front bench “at this crucial time.”
Mr McFadden said: “"I want to make the hard-headed, patriotic case for both Britain in Europe and for change in Europe so that it works for working people.
"Labour believes that Europe can and must be made to work better for Britain but we understand that the right road for Britain is change in Europe, not exit from Europe."
Earlier this year, Mr McFadden accused David Cameron of talking tough on immigration because he was "terrified" of Ukip.
In an article for Progress magazine, he said the Prime Minister was ignoring "the inconvenient fact that most European Union migrants come to work, not to claim, and that the proportion of people claiming working-age benefits in the UK who are EU migrants is tiny".
"Few want to acknowledge that EU migrants pay more in to the tax and benefit system than they take out," he added.
Mr Miliband's mini-reshuffle sees Mr Thomas shifted to shadow the Middle East and North Africa foreign affairs briefs.
Yvonne Fovargue becomes shadow minister for young people after Rushanara Ali quit last month to abstain on the vote over British involvement in Iraq air strikes.
Ian Lucas has been made a spokesman on international security strategy.
