Keir Starmer’s Suspension of Seven Labour MPs for Voting to Scrap the Two Child Benefit Cap is the Politics of Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings

Keir Starmer last night suspended seven left-wing Labour MPs after they voted for an amendment to scrap the two child benefit cap.

Richard Burgon, John McDonnell, Imran Hussain, Apsana Begum, Zarah Sultana, Rebecca Long-Bailey and Ian Byrne have all had the Labour whip taken away for at least six months, after which there will be a “review” on whether it should be returned.

The heavy-handed approach is reminiscent of Boris Johnson’s decision to take the whip away from 21 Conservative MPs, who voted against his Brexit policy in 2019.

Prior to Johnson’s tenure, suspending the whip was almost always reserved for issues of conduct, or votes of confidence.

However, Johnson’s decision heralded the end of the political careers of many centre ground Conservative MPs, as well as the complete marginalisation of pro-European MPs in the party.

The decision to suspend Labour rebels has the potential to have a similar effect on what remains of the Corbynite wing of the Parliamentary Labour party.

It follows the pre-election suspensions and deselections of a number of other left-wing Labour MPs and candidates, including a failed attempt to engineer the exit of the current Mother of the House, Diane Abbott.

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‘Draconian’ and ‘Unfair’

Labour whips last night told MPs that the amendment to the King’s Speech, which was brought forward by the SNP, amounted to a confidence vote on the Government’s legislative programme.

However, the Dominic Cummings-style tactics have caused fury among some Labour MPs, who were pressured to either vote with the Government or abstain, rather than to support the measure to lift children out of poverty.

One rebel, who abstained following the threats from Labour whips, told Byline Times that the suspensions were “draconian” and “unfair” given that scrapping the two child cap is supported by MPs from across the party.

“I’ve made my unhappiness very clear with this draconian approach”, they said.

Senior Labour figures, including the former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, have been calling on the Government to scrap the cap, which is set to force hundreds of thousands more children into poverty over the coming years.

Under the policy, which was introduced by the former Conservative Chancellor George Osborne, Universal Credit and Tax Credit payments are limited to a family’s first two children.

A recent report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies found that the policy has led to a situation where close to half of all large families are now in relative child poverty. Other studies have shown that scrapping the cap would do more to lift children out of poverty than any other welfare policy currently on the table.

The Government is currently undertaking a review of potential measures to alleviate child poverty, ahead of the upcoming Budget.

The Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said on Tuesday that the Government was “considering” scrapping the cap as one of “a number of measures” to tackle child poverty.

However, the Prime Minister’s spokesman insisted that the party could not scrap the cap “without showing where the money would come from”.

Many Labour MPs who voted with the Government last night still expect the cap to be scrapped at some point.

However, sources close to the Prime Minister had briefed journalists in the past week that they saw facing down rebels on this issue as a “virility test” for the new Government.

As one rebel put it to this paper, in advance of the vote “they were very serious about it… if they don’t follow through then no one will listen to them again”.