Labour braced for as many as 20 ‘welfare cap’ rebels on Wednesday

Labour insiders have confirmed today that the party are anticipating a rebelling on Wednesday over plans – confirmed on LabourList last Wednesday – to vote for the government’s welfare cap.

Over the weekend, media reports suggested that the rebellion could involve as many as 15 to 20 Labour MPs, although the party will obviously trying to minimise that in the coming days. However the last major party rebellion over welfare – on sanctions – saw over 40 MPs vote against the whip.

Diane Abbott has already confirmed that she’ll rebel, and others are thought to be considering breaking cover in the next 48 hours.

However, whilst Miliband will be able to argue that he’s making the right decision against the wishes of many of his backbenchers, it’s worth noting that a cap on welfare spending (minus cyclical spending) was already the Labour leaders’s policy – he set out such a plan in a speech in East London last year.