Seven. Just seven? Is that the total number of Labour MPs the remaining Corbyn era anti-Starmer comrades could muster to vote last night?
Nye Bevan, Michael Foot and Tony Benn must be turning in their graves at the minuscule rebellion after weeks of threats, media interviews, and encouragement in the press and from the many who sincerely believe that the two child cap should go.
Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell are veterans of the rebellion of 40 Labour MPs in December 1997 and of 79 Labour MPs in May 1999 against the tight hold Gordon Brown kept on all benefits.
I did not enjoy voting in those two votes but I did enjoy Labour winning in 2001 and 2005 because it showed it was disciplined about managing taxpayers’ money. It is surprising Jeremy and John did not advise their MP friends to bide their time, keep their powder dry, wait and see if Rachel Reeves would as she and Starmer have strongly hinted find money in the budget once the books have been fully examined.
Thoughts from the new intake
I spoke to one new MP who had won a seat which I thought was utterly unwinnable when I learnt they had been nominated. They know the damage the two child benefit cap does.
They said to me yesterday, “It’s crazy to go off against the government that has just won such a majority to make life better for everyone in Britain.
“Rachel and Liz have been very clear to all of us in personal and group meetings that they recognise the problem and want to put it right. But there are huge public sector demands for pay, investment, making good all the damage Tories and Lib Dems did after 2010.
“I know I will have to spend the next five years working mainly to keep this seat. Starting by voting against my own government doesn’t make sense.”
READ MORE: Two-child cap: ‘Why Starmer punished MPs who voted to tackle child poverty’
The rebels were let down by having the backing of Suella Braverman in the Daily Telegraph yesterday and from Nigel Farage in his maiden speech last night.
The chances of Labour MPs following Braverman, who has supported every Tory measure increasing poverty in her time as an MP, or Farage, who has excused Putin’s war on democracy in Europe, were never high.
It is baffling why McDonnell insisted on rebelling.
How to play smart politics
Like the Charge of the Light Brigade it might have felt good to the seven, but it wasn’t real-time politics. The seven Labour MPs have done a real disservice to the child poverty campaigners and should apologise to them for building up hopes of instant satisfaction. It is easy for Greens or LibDems to insist that a Labour Chancellor should meet their demands.
They have no responsibility for any government decision on spending. As former Health Secretary Nye Bevan said “The language of priorities is the religion of socialism.”
Former Prime Minister Clement Attlee had no hesitation in suspending Bevan when he opposed Labour policy in the run-up to the Second World War . Suspending the seven for their flagrant repudiation of collective solidarity is by the standards of Labour Party history quite mild.
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Every rebellion is manna from Labour heaven for the Daily Mail, Telegraph, and all the TV and radio commentators who want to paint Labour as already breaking down into a divided rabble.
Everyone understands the passions aroused by 14 years of ever increasing poverty initiated by the hard right austerity attacks on public provision initiated by David Cameron, George Osborne, Ed Davey and Vince Cable in 2010.
But what Nye Bevan called “emotional spasms” are no help in running a country.
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