Who abstained on the fiscal charter?

21 Labour MPs abstained on the Charter of Budget Responsibility vote tonight. Labour had been planning on voting in favour of the measure until Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell announced a reversal of that position on Monday, causing tonight’s vote to be a whipped opposition. LabourList understands that around 16 MPs, including some Shadow Cabinet members, were unable to make the vote tonight and so are not included in the list of active abstentions.

Chris Leslie, who served as Shadow Chancellor between May and September, said yesterday that he planned on abstaining. He was joined by former leadership candidate Liz Kendall, former Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt, and former Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Shabana Mahmood.

Former Welfare minister Frank Field, former Shadow Health minister Jamie Reed, and former whip Graham Jones were also among the abstentions. The full list is as follows:

​​​​Fiona Mactaggart

Rushanara Ali

​​​Ian Austin

Ben Bradshaw

Adrian Bailey

Shabana Mahmood

Ann Coffey

​​​​Angela Smith

Simon Danczuk

Jamie Reed

Chris Evans

​​​​Graham Stringer

​​​​Frank Field

​​​Gisela Stuart

​​​​Mike Gapes

​​​​Margaret Hodge

Tristram Hunt

​​​​​Graham Jones​​​​

​​​​​Helen Jones

​​​​​Liz Kendall

​​​​​Chris Leslie