The Labour Party has said that it will withdraw the party whip from any MP who votes to scrap the two-child benefit cap tonight. The Labour party is punishing its MPs who vote to repeal a Tory measure which has been described as an engine driving a huge growth in child poverty. It was reported that the Labour whips were cracking down hard on any sign of dissent, with one MP telling The Guardian’s deputy political editor Jessica Elgot that it was “all stick” rather than any promises to soften the ‘no abolition’ line in future. Another MP described the tactics as “astonishing.”
Remember that Starmer was never in any danger of losing this vote. These heavy handed tactics are about sending a signal to Labour back benchers that the leadership will not countenance any opposition and will deal with it severely. There is no place for a principled difference on policy in Starmer’s Labour party. Starmer is baring his authoritarian teeth early in his administration with an excessive control freak response to a rebellion that did not seriously threaten him.”Cannot tolerate dissent” is not a good look. The suspension of the Whip for seven Labour MPs for voting with the SNP to end the heinous two child benefit cap is proof that Starmer sees leadership solely as authority to be wielded as a weapon.
Empowered by a huge parliamentary majority, he’s now prepared to kick out MPs from the Parliamentary Labour party for opposing child poverty. Just think on that for a minute. Removing the whip from a Labour MP for voting against poverty is a betrayal of every value Keir Hardie set up the Labour Party to be. A Keir to start the party, a Keir to end the party. Labour has come full circle.
Right now Keir Starmer has the greatest political capital and goodwill he will ever possess in his political career, and he’s throwing it away in order to keep children in poverty.
MPs voted by 353 to 103 against an SNP amendment to scrap the two child benefit cap. The Lib Dems voted with the SNP, the Greens, Plaid Cymru and Independents to abolish the cap. Even the DUP and the Ulster Unionists voted to abolish the cap. Only seven Labour MPs had the moral backbone to rebel, none of them representing Scottish constituencies. Labour in Scotland said it was opposed to the two child cap. Labour candidates in Scotland said that they’d stand up to Starmer to defend Scotland’s interests. Anas Sarwar vowed to campaign to abolish the cap and got himself glowing headlines in the Daily Record vowing to stand up to Starmer for Scotland. That hasn’t aged well has it Anas.
During the election campaign Anas Sarwar described as “nonsense” a suggestion that Scottish Labour MPs would do exactly what Keir Starmer told them to, irrespective of what Scottish Labour members wanted. Yet the very first time that they are put to the test, Scottish Labour MPs did exactly what Starmer told them to do.
They lied. Here they are, not a month after being elected, all they are standing up for are Tory policies that punish the poor. The DUP are more left wing than Starmer’s Labour party. Starmer’s Scottish sock puppets did as they were told. The seven Labour MPs who rebelled are Apsana Begum, Imran Hussain, Rebecca Long Bailey, Ian Byrne, Richard Burgon, Zarah Sultana, and John McDonnell. All have now been suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party for six months. Every single one of Labour’s Scottish MPs voted to retain the cap. Every single one of them. This is their two child cap. They own it now. Not one of them has a shred of credibility left when it comes to discussions on how to tackle child poverty.
In response to constituents writing to him urging him to vote to abolish the cap, one Labour MP, Gordon McKee, the new MP for Glasgow South, emailed back to tell his constituents to contact their MSP and call for the cap to be scrapped. It’s either a breathtakingly shameless piece of buck passing or utter stupidity on McKee’s part. He must know that the two child cap is a cap on universal credit, and child tax credit, both of which are controlled by Westminster. The Scottish government has no power to abolish a cap on a benefit controlled by Westminster. All it can do is use its limited budget to mitigate it, as it is already doing with the Scottish Child Payment. The Scottish budget is set in large part by Westminster, so mitigating Westminster policies can only come at the expense of squeezing spending elsewhere. Then Gordon McKee and his pals will whine about SNP cuts.
There are rumours that the cap may be abolished in Labour’s first budget. Even if that is true, continuing to allow children to suffer just for the sake of a cynical budget-day headline grabber really is contemptible. If it can be done in a couple of months, it can be done now.
Before the election Labour’s new MP for Midlothian Kirsty McNeill promised she would “always fight for your family as if it’s my own.” Just not if your family is poor and has the audacity to have more than two kids.
What a shameful start to this new government. Aren’t you really glad you voted to get rid of the Tories? This is no longer the Tories’ two child cap, it’s Labour’s. I’m sure Good Morning Scotland will be all over Anas Sarwar to explain himself… Oh, right. He’ll be making himself scarce for the next few days.
Let’s give a slow hand clap for any independence supporters who voted Labour expecting ‘change’. We told you so. It would be nice to say I was surprised, but the Labour party in Scotland is behaving true to its shabby form. All those years in the political wilderness have taught it nothing at all. If Labour doesn’t want to be called the red Tories, don’t lift the cap on bankers’ bonuses while keeping Tory policies designed to target the most vulnerable in society and condemn them to poverty.
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