Two-child cap: ‘Why Starmer punished MPs who voted to tackle child poverty’

Few people in Labour will have enjoyed the spectacle of the party whipping its MPs to vote down a plan to lift children out of poverty last night.

Whichever way individual MPs voted – or did not vote  – on scrapping the two-child benefit cap, tackling poverty will be high up on the causes that got many into politics in the first place.

Socialist Campaign Group co-chair Zarah Sultana told GMB this morning she “slept well” having backed the SNP’s amendment – despite being one of seven MPs whose defiance lost them the Labour whip. The cabinet itself has been dubbed “the most working-class of all time”, and probably would have slept better too if they’d felt able to immediately scrap a controversial Tory policy.

There is fresh anger on the left, with FBU general secretary Matt Wrack saying today rebels “spoke for” many in the labour movement and they deserve the whip back. National executive committee member Mish Rahman called it “shameful” and “control freakery”.

But there were plenty of reasons the leadership hasn’t just kept the cap for now, but brutally punished rebels – and plenty of reasons 361 MPs toed the line.

READ MORE: Seven Labour MPs lose whip following backbench rebellion

First, the leadership saw voter trust in a clear, fully-costed programme, strict fiscal rules and minimal tax-raising plans as foundational to Labour’s election bid. Even Jeremy Corbyn at least partially attempted something similar.

The aim was tackling public and market fears about Labour threatening the public finances through excessive tax, spending or borrowing  – which proved fatal for the last three Labour leaders.

Sam White, Starmer’s former chief of staff and a former Alistair Darling adviser, told me how unlikely it ever was that “in the first test of whether she’s a serious Chancellor, Rachel Reeves was going to pull off her mask Mission Impossible-style and reveal she was in fact Liz Truss, pretending there’s money when there isn’t.”

READ MORE: Two-child cap: Starmer says no ‘silver bullet’ despite ‘strong feeling’ in party

He is optimistic Labour will address child poverty, but noted the “vast backlog” of issues Labour faces too – from crumbling schools to public sector pay to scandal compensation. Yet Reeves has a poor fiscal inheritance, meaning growth is vital for raising funds to “work through problems as resources allow”.

Even Nye Bevan said socialism is “the language of priorities”. Starmer will face similar demands over countless important causes this parliament, and even a Corbyn government wouldn’t have felt able to fund them all.

Nor would Corbyn have wanted to look weak to voters – or pliable to MPs – by caving immediately on his own King’s Speech, particularly at the whims of the SNP rather than a fiscal event. One senior source told Sky News “we expect Labour MPs to support the programme we were elected on”.

Punishing the rebels sends a loud signal not just to the left but to his many new MPs and the public that Starmer’s “changed” party and ruthless streak weren’t just for show in opposition. Aides may have calculated the move also spares Starmer continual media coverage of further potential defiance by these seven MPs at least.

READ MORE: Charities at roundtable say axe two-child cap as child poverty taskforce launched

As a whipping operation, the fear factor plus the carrot of a child poverty review has largely worked. Note a fair few SCG members did not rebel, including even Kim Johnson, who had filed her own two-child cap amendment.

The six-month whip restoration review might be aimed at keeping now-independent MPs more optimistic about returning and thus on side than they might have been otherwise, given other recent suspensions have been much longer.

But the big question is how far it has deepened many MPs’ unease over the policy, particularly if Labour gives in later on, as it partly did on Gaza. Many, particularly new, MPs would have backed the government’s programme in their first crunch votes without a stick over their head.

Sky News’ Sam Coates notes too that if Labour only scrapes to victory in 2029, and the sidelined SCG became kingmakers on knife-edge votes, votes like last night won’t be forgotten.

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