“Let’s be clear – this isn’t about retribution for the past. Suspensions such as these aren’t disciplinary measures; they’re political ones. This is about preparing the ground for what’s to come.”
Neil Duncan-Jordan, Chris Hinchliff, Brian Leishman and Rachael Maskell should be commended for their principled opposition to Starmer’s brutal disability benefit cuts, writes a Labour Councillor.
Some, less acquainted with Keir Starmer’s political instincts, might have hoped the frontbench would take the right lessons from the debacle over the Government’s Disability Benefit Cuts Bill – which saw panicked Ministers tearing up their own proposals on the Commons floor just hours before the vote.
Even after the Government was dragged kicking and screaming into offering concessions, the Bill ripped £2 billion from disabled people’s incomes – via a benefits system already cut to the bone by the Tories, and was rightly opposed by every major disabled people’s organisation.
In total, around 60 MPs voted at various stages against measures that will push disabled people into poverty. Just 4 had the whip suspended.
They have now again gone after Diane Abbott, a move that is already garnering significant opposition across society, with voices from across the movement voicing support for Diane. A petition in support of Diane Abbott has also hit 30,000 signatures since her suspension.
The reasoning for targeting the three standout MPs from the 2024 intake, alongside Rachael Maskell – who led the reasoned amendment to scrap Starmer’s vile cuts is as obvious as it is contemptible.
This is about putting heads on spikes as a warning to an increasingly defiant Parliamentary Labour Party. Set aside your conscience, stay in line, or there are consequences.
Let’s be clear – this isn’t about retribution for the past. Suspensions such as these aren’t disciplinary measures; they’re political ones. This is about preparing the ground for what’s to come.
MPs were offered the carrot of concessions on welfare – now comes the stick. With a budget, a child poverty strategy, and SEND proposals all looming, Starmer is laying the groundwork for future confrontations with Labour MPs.
I’m sure in Downing Street this felt like a strong move, demonstrative Starmer’s a “hard bastard” as he recently gloated. He was, of course, half right.
In truth, it shows that the labour right’s project, despite its impressive parliamentary majority, is utterly weak, and in the absence of a vision for the country – has reverted to the only position it has consistently held; attacking the party’s left.
To some, this may pass for political strategy – further proof, perhaps, of the Machiavellian brilliance of a leadership that squandered its early goodwill by stripping Winter Fuel Payments from pensioners just weeks into office. But it won’t cut it with an electorate desperate for change.
Duncan-Jordan, Hinchliff, Leishman and Maskell join John McDonnell and Apsana Begum who remain suspended for the grievous offence of opposing the two-child benefit cap.
All six can stand firm in the knowledge that they did what they were elected to do. MPs aren’t sent to Westminster to make their constituents poorer, or to abandon their principles at the altar of party loyalty.
As left-wing MP Richard Burgon rightly pointed out just days ago — no Labour MP was elected on a manifesto that included slashing billions from support for disabled people.
The campaign for the reinstatement of the suspended Labour MPs must therefore be interwoven with clear demands in support of the values that sets them, and the left, from Starmer’s Government.
We need MPs who are genuine legislators, not lobby fodder for legislation cooked up by big business or the property developer lobby. We need a government whose first instinct, when money must be raised, is to take it from the billionaire class – whose wealth has doubled in the last decade – not to squeeze yet more from working people whose wages have flatlined and whose benefits have been stripped away.
Failing to articulate and champion this alternative – one rooted in the values of the labour and trade union movement will open the door to Reform, offering a sick blend of reheated Thatcherism, scapegoating of migrants and nationalism.
But we must also resist the pessimism of the doomsayers. The historic opportunity offered by a Labour government – “to change society and define its finer values” – is still there. It must simply be grasped with clarity and urgency.
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Well done all four