British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has suspended four Labour MPs as he seeks to reassert his authority after a series of damaging backbench rebellions.
Rachael Maskell, one of Starmer’s fiercest opponents in the recent revolt over welfare reforms, Chris Hinchliffe, Brian Leishman and Neil Duncan-Jordan have all had the whip withdrawn over persistent breaches of party discipline.
In response, Leishman and Duncan-Jordan both hit out, saying they had not been elected last year to make people ‘poorer’.
The move comes before politicians depart Westminster for the summer early next week and follows speculation that some Labour MPs could have been in talks to join a new party being created by ex-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana.
But a senior Labour figure said the suspensions ‘shows how weak they are. It only hastens Starmer’s fall by showing his absolute weakness’.
Starmer suffered a serious blow earlier this month when dozens of his own MPs voted against his planned welfare cuts in Parliament.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves now faces the task of filling the $6.7 billion hole in the public finances left by the climbdown, raising speculation she will be forced to raise taxes in the autumn.
The prime minister had been forced into two humiliating U-turns on the legislation in less than a week to head off a revolt that threatened to defeat his government on one of its flagship policies.
Despite the climbdowns, the revolt was still the largest backbench rebellion Starmer has suffered so far.
In response to his suspension, Alloa and Grangemouth MP Leishman, who has repeatedly criticised Starmer over welfare reforms and winter fuel payment cuts, said he was ‘a proud Labour member, and I remain committed to the party. I wish to remain a Labour MP and deliver the positive change many voters are craving”.
But he said he did not believe it was his duty as an MP ‘to make people poorer’.
Poole MP Duncan-Jordan said he ‘couldn’t support making disabled people poorer’, while York Central MP Maskell said she had been suspended for ‘standing up for my constituents’ over the benefits plans.
She added: “There are lines I can’t cross because of where I come from in politics with my faith.”
She said she was ‘not angry’ but “upset that we are in this place because I believe we are better than that as a party. I believe that strength comes from the backbenches.”
Three other Labour MPs, Rosena Allin Khan, a former member of Starmer’s frontbench, Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Mohammed Yasin, had their trade envoy roles removed for their opposition to the government.
Before the welfare vote, the previous record for rebellion numbers was earlier this month during the passage of the planning and infrastructure bill, when 16 MPs rebelled.
&uuid=(email))