(Bloomberg) — The UK’s new prime minister Keir Starmer has suspended the party whip from seven of his own MPs after they backed a rebel amendment to scrap Britain’s two-child cap on welfare payments, the first rebellion he’s faced in the House of Commons since winning power.
The MPs who have had the whip suspended are Apsana Begum, Richard Burgon, Ian Byrne, Imran Hussain, Rebecca Long-Bailey, John McDonnell and Zarah Sultana, according to a person familiar with the matter. The suspensions will last for six months and will then be reviewed, the person said.
Starmer has faced significant pressure from the left of his party to remove the two-child cap, a move which its advocates say would help eradicate child poverty in the UK. Yet despite signaling an openness to the idea — and having appointed a taskforce on child poverty earlier this month — Starmer is yet to back the proposal, which the Resolution Foundation estimates would cost about £2.5 billion ($3.2 billion) a year.
One government official, speaking on condition of anonymity to Bloomberg last week, said the battle over the two-child cap was like a virility test for the new administration, arguing it couldn’t be seen to lose its first fight with the left-wing of the Labour party. They also expressed frustration that by moving so soon, the rebels would make it harder for Starmer to lift the cap at the Budget in the autumn without looking weak.
The swift suspensions are also a sign of Starmer wanting to instill strict party discipline on voting, even with the cushion of having won power with a working majority of 180.
The two-child benefit cap has been criticized by poverty campaigners for having a disproportionate impact on the poorest families. The End Child Poverty Coalition estimates that scrapping the policy would lift 300,000 children out of poverty, and reduce the hardship experienced by an extra 800,000. The cap was designed to encourage parents to work, but the ECPC highlighted that over 80% of two-parent families impacted by the cap are already in work.
–With assistance from Alex Wickham, Ailbhe Rea and Jacob Reid.
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